Undeserving
by hinabato
Summary: Earth, year 3076. Humanity has achieved immortality, intergalactic space travel, and has solved nearly every mystery of the universe. Only one challenge is left: time travel. And Myu finds herself an accidental test pilot.
1. Default Chapter

Undeserving - by oremis (previously by the penname "draekon", same person though)  
  
  
  
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An AUTHOR'S NOTE to readers who have read the original "Undeserving" and are wondering what happened to it:   
  
  
  
This story is a reposting of a previous one that was erased. I just logged on to post the new chapter a while ago, and poof, my fic was gone. No notice, no warning, not even so much as an explanation why.   
  
  
  
Anyways PLEASE LET ME KNOW if you want me to continue posting "Undeserving" all over again. The problem is, if I do repost, I'll have to edit and rewrite a lot of it because I don't have all the chapters saved on my home PC. On the downside, this may take some time, but as a plus, I suppose redoing it could be a blessing since a lot of people said they were confused. I went ahead and rewrote chapters 1 and 2 in this chapter (or actually merged them together), adding in more jokes, imagery and clarifying stuff I forgot explain. I should get caught back up to where I left off fairly quickly. Let me know what you think. If no one's really interested, I'll move on to my next fic, I guess.  
  
  
  
IN THE MEANTIME check out my new fic, "The Adventures of Yoko and Nene" and let me know what you think. Is that worth continuing?  
  
  
  
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Chapter 1   
  
  
  
++++++++++++++++++  
  
  
  
Earth, North Asian Pacific, Ezo Island (formerly known as Hokkaido).   
  
  
  
October 05, 3076. 1:30 AM  
  
  
  
"Myu-chan! Doshtan da? Mada kaera hen?" ((Myu! What's up? Aren't you going home?))  
  
  
  
Big sigh, and sigh again. The Konryu University Astrophysics lab is a mammoth cavern and an all-night chore to tidy up; nearly twice the length and width of a professional basket ball auditorium, and cluttered. Taquitos, is it cluttered! You'd think that a doctorate in Astrophysics would at least include a course on how to put away the equipment after you've finished using it. Sloppy bunch of dorks, these Astrophysics-types are. Especially Professor Kudo here. He's got one of those mad-scientist frizzle do's with brown-black hair sticking up everywhere, and a dirty white lab coat with a big red-and-yellow "K" on the back that he cleverly drew into a Superman emblem. He might have well drawn a big "G" for geek.  
  
  
  
"Kon'ya, zangyou shiro tte iwareta n desu kara." ((I can't. I was told to work overtime tonight.)), I tell him.  
  
  
  
"Hidoi na." ((That's terrible, isn't it?)) says Professor Kudo with a casual, lopsided shrug before he switches off his trashy-looking invention-- fiber optic wires and transistors poking out everywhere much like his hair-- and heads out the nearest exit. "O-saki ni!" ((catch ya later!)).  
  
  
  
"Ano kuso-ttare..." ((That butt-wipe....)) I grumble, making sure I said it *after* the doors had shut behind him this time. What a skank! I spit out my glowing, multi-flavored gobstopper into the nuclear-waste disposal bin, and then go about waking up the cleaning robots.  
  
  
  
By the way, the name's Kaneko Myu, 158 years of age, type-three human entity (human genetic coding was perfected and enhanced to a quadruple-helix format in 2714), 5% cyborg, and only daughter of Kaneko Jin (my dad). And if my life could be summed up in one word, I'd say it would be "boring"... and "lonely"... well, two words then. Now that my mom is happily remarried and can't be bothered with me, I live in the northern sector of Ezo with just dad, who immerses himself in his work 24-7 as chairman of the Astrophysics Department of Konryu Butsuri-Daigaku (Golden Dragon University of Physics). Since I work at night, and dad works in the day, we don't see each other that much, which is fine by me.  
  
  
  
While dad's off compiling data on the cosmic microwave background in hopes of reconstructing events at the beginning of time, I'm shepherding cleaning robots and tidying up after people who make 17 times my income. Dad doesn't like this at all. He's always had this grandiose vision of me being his able-minded sidekick in his very important "mission of cosmic discovery", but I just wasn't good enough to make him proud (and to be brutally honest, I wasn't good enough to even graduate from Konryu and dropped out 113 years ago). Dad just can't get it into his skull that I'm not smart like him. So he'd be waving my D+ test-paper around like a dirty sock yelling, "How could you get this wrong? Even a primitive simian with less than a million neurons in mental-capacity could calculate the sun's luminosity if L = 4(pi)r^2 (sigma)T^4!" Yeah, whatev, dad. Who needs to know the sun's luminosity anyways? I like art and music, and books,-- I just adore Yojinbo samurai tales, I've even written a couple-- but dad tends to think that if it doesn't have to do with the creation or fate of the universe or drastic changes in major cosmic entities it's not particularly important. Besides, I don't think I'm very good at writing because I didn't get a lot of feedback when I got the nerve to post my "Kitsune Yojinbo" on the net. I don't think I'm good at anything really, except cleaning, and I really hate cleaning. Stupid janitor shifts...  
  
  
  
**********************  
  
  
  
Middle-Earth, West of the Misty Mountains, Outskirts of Imladris Proper.   
  
  
  
July 05, 2948, Third Age. 1:30 PM.  
  
  
  
"No! You are jerking it too fast! You are going to scare them away!"  
  
  
  
Elladan reached over and nabbed the home-made fishing pole from Estel. "I shall teach you how to properly attract fish one more time, Estel, and I expect you to attend to me." The elf began to demonstrate again, "Watch... If you hold the twine and perform a curt twitching motion like so, the fish will mistake the bait for something alive and chase after it. And then if you..."  
  
  
  
The seventeen-year-old nodded dully, shifting his eyes to where the lure made a disk of ripples in the small lake just outside Rivendell. Elladan usually referred to this lake as a fishpond, as it was too small to be on most maps, but Estel liked to think of it as a lake since he had once nearly drown trying to swim across it. This pleasant spot sat in a cool recess at the edge of the Valley where ghostly mists slumbered over the still, clear-water sheen in the morning and where pine scented the air heavily after a rain. Homely, yet elegant ivy-strewn cottages of elves hid but a little deeper into the forest behind them. A pleasant breeze was blowing, slicing through the summer heat and tugging at the short brown locks of the young man's hair. Estel rubbed his chin with lazy fingers, feeling the first prickles of a beard growing in.  
  
  
  
"Fishing will prove quite a handy skill should you one day fail to track any game, Estel," the elf said jogging him in the ribs, "You are nearly old enough to join the Dunedain and I would rather my little brother not starve to death in the wilds because he does not know how to properly lure in fish."  
  
  
  
The youth grumbled nonsense, staring at his reflection in the lapping water below. He dangled his leather-shod feet over the ridge of the boulder where the elf sat beside him cross-legged and prim. Suddenly he noticed the raven-haired head of Elladan's twin peeking up into the reflection. When Estel saw the mischievous grin on Elrohir's face and the upturned bucket of water poised high over his head, he flattened his smile and turned to Elladan to distract him, more than delighted to contribute to the incoming prank. "Show me how to tug the line just once more, brother Elladan. I do not think I quite have it yet."  
  
  
  
*************************  
  
  
  
1:32AM. Show time. After buying myself some cheap phenylalanine-loaded beverage out of the vending machine, I fling open the doors of the main janitor's closet. "Youshi! Dero! Samazama!" ((Alright! Out! All of you!)), I point at the ceiling-duster robot who just turns and looks at me, "Ee, temae mo!" ((Yes, you too!))  
  
  
  
It gives an exasperated beep, and then lumbers out, knowing good and well that the other robots aren't supposed to go until last. (Usually the ceiling/air-duct sweeper is supposed to go before all the others to keep the floors from getting dirty again, or so they tell me). But I don't have time to wait for that old can to mosey about. I'm going home early to get some sleep and that's that.   
  
  
  
I yawn and start out my routine, as always, replacing nuclear batteries and doing system shutdowns... And there goes my mind drifting off somewhere...  
  
  
  
According to my high-school world history class (which I got a B+ in, incidentally), humans used to be the most physically pathetic creatures on earth, short of single-celled organisms. About 550 years ago, in the 2520's, people took a good look at all the nifty machines they made, and wondered why they needed to depend on these machines instead of their own physical bodies. So, instead of improving on their machines, people started improving on themselves through a marriage of biotechnology and cybernetics, coming up with a second type of human model, then a third type. (Most people now-a-days have type-three's, but there are still type-twos for people who cannot afford them) Before these improvements, I heard people used to have bones made out of brittle calcium instead of titanium alloy... and liquid blood instead of intercellular conduction plasma-- real nasty. They also had biochemical DNA instead of nanotech cell-nuclei, which often mutated into something called cancer and killed them. I can't imagine what it would be like knowing your body's gonna shut down in like 80 years or something (not that my life is worth keeping, but still!).  
  
  
  
I guess nobody else appreciates that besides me. The only thing people really appreciate is that the exterior features of a type-three body can be altered as one likes. For girls, you could have the body of a supermodel, pop star, Barbie doll, porn diva... For guys; choose from pro quarterback, teen heart-throb, Mr. Universe, underwear model... whatever you want to look like, it's your choice. Me? I chose an east-Asian skin tone, light surfer-blonde hair (I customized some of it to purple now), this wicked green-highlight-blue-lowlight for my eyes, and a very well-shaped body that is supposed to work magic on eligible batchelors. But since this body hasn't succeeded in getting me a boyfriend yet (being a college-dropout and a full-time janitor just isn't appealing, I guess), I think I might consider myself a doomed celibate and change my model to a tall, athletic build sometime. But that idea's on hold until I get enough money... Stupid janitor shifts.  
  
  
  
*******************  
  
  
  
1:32 PM.  
  
  
  
Unfortunately, Elrohir's bucket of water was sloshing just enough so Elladan's sensitive elf-ears detected it. A sly look crossed the latter's grey eyes as he leaned towards Estel to feign another demonstration. Just as the younger twin took that final footstep and set himself into stance, Elladan spun quick as a viper and rammed the butt of the fishing rod up into Elrohir's upraised bucket.  
  
  
  
With a yelp of alarm, Elrond's youngest son let the bucket fly from his hands, dousing a good volume of water over the hidden spectator who was crouched snickering behind him. "Valar!" Legolas cried, blocking the wooden bucket with his forearms, and as much as he could of the water that came with it.  
  
  
  
Elladan was not finished there. A look of pure horror swept over Elrohir's face as his brother rose like a furious Baelrog from the deep. The younger twin turned on heel and tried to flee, but Elladan easily sprung up, nabbed him by the collar and swung him around on his own momentum to send him flying into the lake. When Elrohir came crashing down, Estel nearly shed tears of laughter. It was a rare and treasured occasion to see the ancient elvenfolk, fairest and wisest of all Arda's creatures, roughhousing like younglings.  
  
  
  
Elrohir was submerged a good moment before he broke the surface sputtering and coughing. He blinked the water from his grey eyes and saw his elder twin looming over him on the rocks, his arms folded tightly across his chest. "Elbereth knows both adar and I have admonished you, time and time again, to cease with these inane practical jokes!"  
  
  
  
Elrohir swabbed away some of the dark hair plastered to his face. Laughter was bubbling up inside as he watched Elladan trying to keep on serious airs while Estel was rolling at his feet in hysterics. "You told me and I have! This time it was a dare. And I could not possibly turn down the will of an the Mirkwood king's son, could I?"  
  
  
  
Elladan manced the said 'Mirkwood king's son' with a look of disdain as he, still a few paces behind, wrung out his blonde hair, now dampened to a walnut brown. "You act as though I coerced him..." protested Legolas, shrugging innocently.  
  
  
  
"And moreover," Elrohir went on, gesturing toward Estel, "I would say our little brother enjoys my pranks, perhaps a little too much..."  
  
  
  
A wicked grin tugged at Elrohir's lips as Estel's jeering face melted to a look of horror, "No! Not me!" the youth cried, trying to scramble away, but the elf had already lunged forward and nabbed him by the ankle. Elrohir managed to drag the thrashing, giggling human teenager into to water up to his waist before Estel managed to yank himself free at the loss of his right boot.  
  
  
  
"Stop this, both of you," Elladan snapped, helping Estel back onto the boulder, "You are much too frisky this morning."   
  
  
  
Elrohir smiled brightly, then dipped down for a mouthful of water and squirted it at his elder twin, which did not make it as far as he'd liked.  
  
  
  
A smile cracked over Elladan's stony face. "Out. Now," he commanded gently, "Give Estel back his shoe."  
  
  
  
Elrohir chuckled a little more and did as he was told, dribbling lake water like a wet shaggy dog. Once he had handed over Estel's boot, he began to strip off his drenched clothing and lay it out on a sun-warmed rock to dry. Legolas too shrugged off his own sodden tunic. Estel settled back down beside Elladan and shielded his eyes, knowing he would never get used to this sort of display. Unlike humans, elves felt not at all ashamed of their bodies.  
  
  
  
Elrohir climbed up on a nearby ledge and cannon-balled into the lake. When he bobbed back to the surface he motioned for Estel to join him. "Come now, Estel. You aren't going to sit around in soggy breeches are you?"  
  
  
  
The young man nodded, peeking out shyly between his fingers.  
  
  
  
Legolas slipped into the lake water unobtrusively and swam out to join Elrohir, bobbing a few yards before Elladan and Estel's rock ledge. "The water is pleasant. It should not be too cold for him," the calm-natured wood-elf diagnosed.  
  
  
  
Estel grinned awkwardly, then stood, "I'll just... go and change back at the house..." he said, then trotted off.  
  
  
  
"What about your lessons?" Elladan shouted after him.  
  
  
  
"I'll come right back," he called over his shoulder then disappeared around a bend of poplar trees.  
  
  
  
********************  
  
  
  
1:36AM . I continue down the line, settling into a comfortable sequence of battery-empty-change, battery-full-skip, shutdown, shutdown, until I come at last to Professor Kudo's machine. It's not that I'm not used to people picking on me, but this Kudo-guy in particular really binds my cheese. Thoughts of revenge cross my mind as I stare at this innocent little machine of his that probably took him several weeks to build. I give a sly little grin and devilishly drum my fingers on the beverage bottle in my left hand. We both know I'm too soft to do anything. Still, I look closely at the control panel: "Jikan-Tsuro" ((Time Gateway)), it reads across the top in gold letters.   
  
  
  
As if! That's a pretty good joke for Kudo! I shake my head and saunter off to the next battery port, laughing. A Time Machine? That's just a bunch of Sci-Fi rubbish that's been around since the start of the second millennium. And it's an even a bigger joke that someone like Kudo, a lower-ranking scrub who teaches 101 and doesn't even have his Ph.D., thinks he can build a Time Mach--  
  
  
  
I'm right in the middle of that thought when I trip over the steam-vac robot and go plowing into Professor Charayar's prototype 11-dimentional supergravity simulator. My right hand grabs a hose, and the free fingers on my left hand hook onto a gauge over the control panel, and luckily, they hold my weight.  
  
  
  
I look over my shoulder and glare at the vacuum murderously, "Chuui-seyo, sono baka!" ((Careful, you idiot!))  
  
  
  
The little robot wheels around and zips off in terror, leaving a shiny clean streak behind it. As I am picking myself up, I hear tinkling. Yeah, I'm confused too. Not till a moment later do I realize that I'm holding the beverage bottle upset in my left hand, and it's dribbling all over the console. Taquitos, am I dumb. Well, that's 2 million years of simian evolution for you. I flip it back over and am about to go look for a towel or something when the crackling sound of a short circuit reminds me that Professor Charayar uses electricity-based CPUs.   
  
  
  
Uh, I suppose this is a worthy moment for a few dirty oaths, that is, if I could talk. My heart feels like it just squeezed up into my throat. No. This would not be funny if I were to break a multi-million credit piece of equipment that is property of Konryu University. Especially when the department manager is my dad. I begin frantically punching buttons. The machine doesn't respond. I hit the emergency reset switch. Still nothing. Now that all else has failed, I began kicking and smacking the CPU until all the cleaning robots are having post-traumatic flashbacks.  
  
  
  
1:45AM... "Ikenai..." ((I'm screwed...)) I stare dazed at the dead CPU console. Now what? I'm surely going to be fired, as well as convicted of vandalizing school property by the dozen or so security cameras looking my way to prove it (if not for spilling my drink, they can still get me for kicking it, which I really should not have done in retrospect).   
  
  
  
Just then, as though captured under some strange, compelling force, my gaze slowly shifts to Professor Kudo's "Time Gateway". Oh, so you're building your little "Time Gateway", are you, smarty-pants? I swear I can see his face jeering at me in that blank monitor, taunting me just like last time when I broke the garbage 'bot. "Hey, Myu-chan. I heard what you did to the garbage doodad there, butterfingers. If you'd pay better attention and quit daydreaming..." This is just more fodder for his I'm-right-your-wrong hypothesis. I'd love to show him who's wrong with that BS invention of his.   
  
  
  
Well, I'm gonna get fired as is, so I might as well check it out. I stride over to his contraption purposefully. I've gotta see if it works.  
  
  
  
***************  
  
  
  
1:45 PM.  
  
  
  
Elladan heaved a sigh as he sat on the lakeshore rock, waiting for Estel to return as Elrohir and Legolas swam languidly in the summer afternoon. Elladan rarely got to see Estel as often he would have liked, he thought. He and his brother were too often far from home, battling orc with the Dunedan in vengeance for their mother. Celebrian's suffering at the hands of orcs and her inevitable departure to the undying lands had shaken Elladan, even more so than his twin, and he had been plagued with fear all his long years thence; that those dear to him may one day be no more. Even the immortality of elves was void in the dangers of these times and it saddened him. It saddened him deeply to loose that sense of security that seemed so solid in his youth.   
  
  
  
Legolas, on the other hand, seemed frivolous to the days as they passed, coddled in office work for his father while his older brother managed affairs on the field. Though this elf was, on rare occasion like this, sent on official errand to Rivendell and elsewhere with an escort, his perils were less than that of Elrond's sons. From what Elladan had observed, Legolas' attention was more than often turned to indulgence in fleeting romantic quests, fine wines, riches and the like. However his blood-relation to Thranduil (and ultimately the legendary elvenking Oropher) reserved him an unparalleled skill at the bow, even better than Elladan, which was indeed a bitter source of jealousy. But since Elladan himself (and most other elves for that matter) far overshadowed him in swordsmanship, he was mollified somewhat.  
  
  
  
Elladan turned back to the lake to find Legolas floating on his back, lazily tracing the green patterns of the overhanging foliage with his eyes. "And to what do we owe the honor of this visit, O Mirkwood Prince?"  
  
  
  
"Just some entertainment and a draft of Dorwinion perhaps..." Legolas sighed languidly, "I am here on errand, and must hasten to Lorien shortly, perhaps in the morn. Though I would very much fancy a night of singing and dancing in the Hall of Fire with the lovely ladies of the noble house, if that is not to much to ask... so long as I do not have to sit through Elrohir's tedious story-tellings..."  
  
  
  
Elrohir popped up out of the water. "What say you of my story telling?!"  
  
  
  
Elladan rolled his eyes, having anticipated the skirmish that soon broke out between his brother and his friend.  
  
  
  
****************  
  
  
  
1:47AM On. Launching Operating System... User Login Inactivated (with Kudo, go figure)... Patching User Netscape v.27.4. Login complete... User Command? Now what are all these switches and dials supposed to do when he doesn't have them labeled? Hmmm.... a little flick here, a turn here might do something... Ooh! What's this shiny red button do?  
  
  
  
"Nani shiterun, Kaneko-san?" ((What are you doing there, Ms. Kaneko?))  
  
  
  
I whirl around, eyes wide as saucers. "Yanagi-san!" Yanagi is one of the security-guards. He is standing in the doorway, arms crossed tightly over his chest and looking as though he has a few important items of justice to administer. I improvise quickly, shifting my hand along the side of the control panel, slightly, imperceptibly, down into the gap. "Warui desu kedo, sukoshi tasukete kudasaimasen ka?" ((I'm sorry, but could you help me out a little here?)) I ask innocently, "Kikai no hokori wo nugutteru aida ni wa sode wo hikakechattan desu ga!" ((My sleeve got caught while I was dusting the machine!))  
  
  
  
I am lucky that, despite all the advancements in this day and age, security guards seem to have been left behind in the Cro-Magnon stage of mental evolution. "Chotto misete, Kaneko-san." ((Show me where, Ms. Kaneko)) he offers earnestly, walking up. Then he notices something most people would have noticed earlier. "E? Dare ga tsukete shimattan? Gamen ni naze 'Soushi Itashimasu' ga kaite aru?" ((Huh? Who turned this on? Why does the monitor say 'Initializing'?))  
  
  
  
He looks straight at me, searching for answers. I have to do something quick before the realization works its way through his puny brain and I get arrested. The first thing I notice is the hilt of the photic blade emitter (Koshito) at his belt. Acting fast, perhaps a little too fast, I seize the hilt and jerk the titanium-carbide base-blade up across his chest. "Sagare!" ((Back off!))  
  
  
  
That was stupid. Why did I just do that? Great. Now I'm in trouble for armed assault. With a potentially dangerous weapon, too. (When activated, the blade will cut through anything, even though it doesn't glow or go 'vvmph' like in the movies --they emit concentrated X-ray, not visible light-- but when inactivated, it's still a fairly sharp dagger.) I guess I was trying to scare Yanagi, or at most to graze him and let him know I meant business. As a type-three, his accelerated healing factor would have erased any cuts instantly. But I still shouldn't have done that. Yanagi had staggered back from the blow and now just stands there dumbfounded, clutching his chest and staring at me with disbelief written all over his face. He stares at me so long that I begin to wonder how deep I cut him. Then he falls... in two pieces.  
  
  
  
My first reaction is to scream, as is my second, and my third is to look down and notice that the blade was one of those newer models that activate automatically. Oh shhh-- Of all the stupid things you could do! I can't believe you just-- no, don't say it! I start to panic. Hide the body? No good, his heart monitor has probably already alerted the police. How am I supposed to explain this was an accident? A stupid, rash, accident? Prison sentence. Manslaughter. 50 years.   
  
  
  
Aaack!!! I panic, spin around and run smack into the Time Gateway. Bad. Rubbing my poor nose, I notice something weird about the machine; that the portal-arch is acting funny; it's no longer empty... the view through it is blurred and distorted in some places by some strange force (don't expect me to know what it is... I failed Astrophysics, remember?). And the screen says... "Ready"...? Just "Ready"? Ready for what? This can't be serious. But then again, I wish it were. This would make a perfect getaway. But what would happen to me? Would I really end up in the past or future? Would I be turned inside out or vaporized into sub-atomic particles?  
  
  
  
I hear police sirens.  
  
  
  
You don't have anything to loose, you know. Who will miss you? So says my conscience, and I agree. I reach forward and stick an index finger into the blurred portal. It feels strange, like I'm being both torn apart and crushed together at the same time, but then again it doesn't hurt.   
  
  
  
Commence Teleportation?  
  
  
  
Footsteps running in the hall. Getting closer. Hurry! Choose! Choose, or it'll be too late!  
  
  
  
I click on "Yes" and hop onto the platform. The gateway begins to glow. The voltage meters rockets. The droning is near deafening. I reached my arms out and stepped forward, blinded by the light...  
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
  
1:49PM  
  
  
  
Elrohir splashed Legolas, Legolas dunked Elrohir, and soon enough the two of them were locked a wrestling hold, batting water in each other's faces. Elladan threw down the fishing pole in defeat and stood up, "How can I give Estel a descent fishing lesson with the two of you splashing around like elflings and scaring away all the fish?"   
  
  
  
Elrohir and Legolas carried on as if Elladan's scolding were nothing but a feeble gust of wind. They continued their bout of horseplay tirelessly until, like a bolt out of the blue, their ears picked up a distant someone yelling out, something that sounded like "Takeetos!", closing in fast. They turned just in time to see a good-sized object streak down into the lake faster than the eye could blink. Elladan threw himself to the ground as the impact burst up into a megaton shower of lakewater, which soon came crashing down all around him when gravity took its course. After the cascade had finished pounding him, leaving him nearly as drenched as his brother had been after he had flung him in the lake, the elf peeked up over the rock ledge, half-expecting to see the shoreline receded several inches. He tallied Legolas and Elrohir, shaken but unhurt, washed up on the sand to his far right.  
  
  
  
After a long, lingering moment of silence and befuddlement, Elrohir sat up, turned to his elder brother and pointed out, "I think that just scared away all your fish."  
  
  
  
Elladan stood muttering something unintelligible about divine retribution and wrung out his midnight hair. He now knew how Elrohir felt being drenched head to foot and he dare say he did not like it one bit. "Go and see what that was," he snapped at his twin.  
  
  
  
"Why not you?"  
  
  
  
"Because I would require time to disrobe."  
  
  
  
Elrohir paused, then pointed at Legolas, "Why not him?"  
  
  
  
"He is our guest."  
  
  
  
"I will--" Legolas began, but Elrohir interrupted.  
  
  
  
"Nonsense. I was merely jesting because I love that surly look Elladan gives; a mirror image of our adar, wouldn't you say?" said Elrohir, and before Elladan could defend himself, he launched himself back into the lake.  
  
  
  
"What in the name of Iluvatar do you suppose that was," mused Legolas. He drew his bare knees up and rested his chin on them as he watched Elrohir's progress.  
  
  
  
Elladan shrugged, his attention snagged on a fish flopping around on the nearby grass, probably hurled out with the impact. He walked over to collect it and deposit it in Elrohir's bucket. "Adar mentioned once about something called a 'meteor' that falls spontaneously out of the heavens," the elf dithered to scope around for more free fish he could bring back, then gave Legolas a look, "Even so, the two of you were fortunate that you were not further out when it struck."  
  
  
  
Legolas slipped him a sidelong glance, then turned to witness Elrohir make his first dive, approximately where this 'meteor' hit. "Of what is a 'meteor' forged?"  
  
  
  
"I doubt of gold or silver... since that appears to be you and your father's primary concern... Usually they embed themselves too deeply into the earth... to ever find," Elladan replied brokenly, as he was concentrating on searching for more displaced fish.  
  
  
  
"Then what about that voice we heard? I could almost swear it sounded like it was coming from above us."  
  
  
  
"Just an illusion I would say. People do not just fall out of the sky. Someone must have seen it coming and shouted a warning."  
  
  
  
"By saying... 'takeetos'?"  
  
  
  
Elladan slipped him an irritated glance.  
  
  
  
Out in the center of the lake, Elrohir broke surface in a hurry. "Legolas! Elladan!" He called urgently over the distance, gasping for breath.  
  
  
  
Legolas bolted to his feet and waded out to waist-deep water, his blue eyes hopeful, "What is it, Elrohir? What did you find?"  
  
  
  
"Someone is down there, on the lake bed!"  
  
  
  
################################## End Chapter 1  
  
  
  
A/N: Amazing but True: If you type the date October 05, 3076 (Myu's time) in Microsoft Word 2000, the program will create a smart tag which gives you the following options when you click on it: Show My Calender, Schedule a Meeting, Remove this Smart Tag and Smart Tag Options. Feeling curious, I clicked on "Schedule a Meeting" and now Microsoft Outlook is set to remind me that I have a meeting scheduled for Thu 10/5/3067 from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM, though no one has been invited yet. I don't think I will still be around to attend my meeting, but if people are still using Microsoft Office in the year 3076, I suppose I should be glad I will not. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 02

A/N: Wow!  I didn't actually think anyone would respond. Thanks for everyone's support. I had no idea anyone cared (sniffles). Thanks so much to Miss Lucifer, Fahrenheit 451, gaya gwath, Anithrarith, Roxy, suziefox, AngelsExist, Morima, Joy4eva, LadyVampl, Kaio, tweeky monkey, Kellyn Smith (any anyone whose review I didn't get) for your support. If you have any comments on my revised version, by all means.

I should get caught up quickly. This chapter is huge, up to the point where Myu has run off after Legolas. The next chapter will be Elladan going out and bringing her back. And chapter 4 will be from when Elladan wakes up after his 'sweet dream' up to where I left off. I don't think I'll have room to repost the intermission, so I might post it as a separate fic if anyone wants it. I'll postpone my other fic to get this finished since I'm getting more reviews for this. And lastly, I revised this new version a lot here, but the basic plot is still relatively the same for those who don't want to reread.

Completely NEW STUFF you might want to check out in this chapter (in chronological order):  

1) Second half of "Myu's Monologue, Subject: nnnNNNOOOooo!!!" at the end of PART 1, starting from "Oh well. Tough luck."… The "type-one" is referring to Estel.

2) The first section of PART 3 where Legolas rides off from Imladris.

3) The entire PART 4, where Elladan decides to go bring Myu back, which is the last part in this chapter.

And did anyone read the A/N at the end of chapter one? (Well, *I* thought it was funny, anyways)

And finally, to Miss Lucifer, thanks for the offer, but I have the first half of chapter 17, and I'm probably gonna re-type it all anyways, and responding to your review for Ch17 (if I remember it correctly you asked something about me having gone to Japan) I went to Japan in fall of 2000 and spring of 2001 and studied there for a year. I would like to go there again for a summer session program if my parents say it's okay, but its fiendishly expensive.

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**PART 1**

Elvish vocab: 

gwador nin = my brother 

mellon nin = my friend 

##############

"Elladan. So glad you could join us."

Elladan made a noise that sounded halfway between a grunt and a growl as he swam quickly to where his twin brother was treading water in the middle of the lake. "Hurry! Dive! He is not going to survive down there much longer!"

"I have already tried that, gwador nin. The water is too murky and deep."

"Then you should try it again!" Elladan shot back as if reprimanding a small, witless child, "Does it matter nothing to you that someone's life is at stake?"

"Aye, it does. Although..." Elrohir stopped short as Legolas broke the surface with a gasp. He shifted his attention to the Sindar prince, not particularly certain of what he was going to say after "although" in the first place. "What news, Legolas?" he asked. 

The Mirkwood elf flipped his blond hair out of his face, hurling water droplets into the air. "I cannot reach him!... The lake is too deep... Cannot see clearly...," he managed through gasps for breath.

"Not an excuse!" Elladan snapped, practically overlapping the end of his sentence. A determined look flickered across the elf's face before he dived beneath the calm surface, and was swallowed up in the murky depths of the lake.

"Ai, Valar!" Legolas gasped, still panting hoarsely and blinking flecks of water from his eyes, "Elladan would drown himself before he found whoever that was."

"I would not fret over it," said Elrohir, shrugging as he paddled to stay afloat, "Elladan never did heed words of warning very well. He will discover soon enough wa have both tried to tell him."

The blond elf nodded absently then turned around as he felt someone surface behind him. "Ah! Given up so easily, Elladan--" he began with a laughing grin, but broke off abruptly when he saw who it was.

Metaphorically, a question mark formed over Elrohir's head. He could see someone blond from his vantage-- not the raven-black hair of his brother-- and it was a considerably whiter blond than Legolas, whose head now stood in his way. Elrohir paddled sideways around Legolas to see for himself, and his eyes widen as more and more of this new person came to into his view.

"A woman!" cried Legolas, having at last mustered the nerve to say something.

And he was right. Obviously female... But a woman, not a female elf. Elrohir could immediately spot the rounded shell of her ears poking through her slicked-down hair, if it could be called hair, that is. Elrohir had never seen anything like it; a most abnormally white-blonde with lavender, yes lavender, streaking the locks at her temples and mid-scalp, while meanwhile, her complexion was a tanned sandy-brown. Her bizarre blue-green eyes were framed in the most lush awnings of eyelashes, unusually jet-black despite her blonde hair, and her eyebrows, barely thicker than a brushstroke, were dark brown-ish. On top of that, she had a pert nose, full lips, glass-textured skin, and somehow, Elrohir thought, though it did not make much sense, she just did not seem, well, "real". Not exactly a real as in "her beauty was unreal", but just unreal as though all the parts, colors and textures that made up her facial features seemed to be chiseled out of marble and painted in, rather than formed naturally on a human being.

The woman was barely keeping her head above water, treading awkwardly as though she had never swam before.

"Interesting..." was all Elrohir could think to say, and even as he did so, she did not once look his way, so enchanted was she by the fair face of Thranduil's youngest son.

Legolas examined her, sizing her up as she continued to stare at him with unbridled interest. "Who are you?" he queried her in the Tongue of Man.

Upon hearing his voice, she cracked a little smile; a slow, delighted and even slightly seductive smile that made the Prince raise an elegant eyebrow. She neglected an answer.

"Is this a game you are playing with me, my lovely child?" the wood-elf asked in all the usual, fluid grace that he exercised around the ladies. 

Elrohir smacked a wearied hand to his forehead, saying in that one gesture; 'oh no, here we go again.' "Legolas, if i may suggest--"

And for a second time, Elrohir was interrupted by an elf popping out of the water and wheezing fervently. "Elrohir! There is no one down there! Are you certain of what your eyes saw or is this just another one of your ridiculous pranks?"

Elrohir blinked at his brother, who had fixed a good, critical glare upon him, and said nothing; just pointed. Elladan frowned and followed his twin's pointer finger... then forgot to breath.

"She will not tell me her name," Legolas informed Elladan, grinning like a child who had just been given a new play-thing. He turned his most smoldering gaze upon her. "Is that not so, mortal? And such an unusual mortal you are, I might add. Will you not give us the pleasure of knowing your name and whence you come? Or at least hearing your voice?"

In response the woman clasped her hands fawningly before her and said, "Aishiteru!" ((I love you!))

"Your name is Aishiteru?" Elrohir repeated.

The woman gave a start, then turned as if she had just noticed the twins, one confused, one stunned, yet identical down to every last angle of their sharp elven features. "Yokuyou wa zenbu chigaun desu ne." ((Your intonation's all wrong.)) she told them.

Legolas blinked. What manner of speech was that? He looked over his shoulder for help and found nothing more than a mirror of his own confusion in the twins' faces. Not knowing what to make of this, he turned back to the unusual human and asked, "What tongue is this you speak?" He realized, upon retrospect, that asking someone what language they spoke, when they could not speak your language, did not do much for you.

"Watashi wa Kaneko Myu to moushimasu. Dozo yoroshiku." ((My name is Kaneko Myu. Pleased to meet you.))

After scrutinizing this woman for a good moment or two with a blank gawk, Legolas' eyes wandered to Elladan, "Are you unwell?"

Elladan shook his head perhaps a little two quickly then continued to observe her, quite intrigued.

Elrohir cleared his throat. "Well now. I shall leave the three of you to sort this out. I shall go to shore," he said and began swimming, "Besides, I imagine my clothes should be dry enough by now."

Elrohir froze. All at once, that small, yet very important overlooked detail dawned on the three of them all at once; they were wearing not a thread of clothing. Three sets of blue and grey eyes regarded one another in horror, then slowly, ever so slowly, fell upon the woman... the female... a member of the opposite sex, fully clothed while they three were treading water in their birthday suits. A thick swallow worked its way down Legolas' throat. A warm, ruddy blush crept over the faces of the twins, straight to the pointed tips of their ears. 

The woman scowled obliviously, "Sonna hen-na kao shinai de!" ((Don't make such wierd faces!)) she sputtered, loosing her battle to stay afloat. She was having to tilt her chin up to keep the water from spilling into her mouth, "Nani sono yatsu!" ((What are you guys up to!)) "Tasukete, baka-tachi!" ((Help me out, you idiots!))

Even though they didn't understand her, the three elves collectively eyed each other, knowing that one of them would have to swim her to shore. "I-i'll do it," Elladan offered quickly.

With a grin tugging at his lips, Legolas swished backwards out of the way so that Elladan could swim up to the human girl, "Here. Take my hand," he said, reaching his long, slender fingers out to her.

Before Elladan could react, the woman nabbed him and yanked him against her, throwing her arms around his bare shoulders. Elrohir burst out laughing at the strangled yelp that escaped his brother, which prompted Elladan to whirl around and glare daggers at him. Unable to quiet down, Elrohir paddled off to the shore, snickering and tittering to his hearts content, knowing that he was due in for a big talking-to at the end of the day about his impropriety. Following after, Legolas sidestroked, the pale form of his body rippled beneath the dancing lake surface, much to the woman's intrigue. "Do you need my help, mellon nin?" he asked Elladan, flattening a quirky smile.

Though still stiff beneath her touch, Elladan managed to shake his head, which sent the Sindar elf on his way back to shore. Elladan looked at the mortal in his arms. He could not escape the pleasant, yet very unwelcome warmth that was beginning to spread over his body as she clung tightly to him, her head rested in the soft crook of his neck.

"Ah... shall we?" he asked, too nervous to consider that his words were lost to her. He slipped a strong arm around her back, felling the strange, glossy material she wore, and began to swim the best he could with one arm and the extra weight of this human dragging him down. He pretended to focus on the shore, drawing nearer inch-by-inch, but was in truth focused on her in the corner of his eye. She had eyes for Legolas, that was evident. Never once did her doting gaze stray from him, a doting gaze that Elladan desired more than anything at this moment to turn his way. The dark-haired elf sighed, feeling his heart grow heavy, but then shook his head, as if to shake off whatever it was causing such ridiculous sentiment. Why should he care for whom this strange mortal fancies? A mortal he just moments ago saw for the first time in his life. His grey eyes wandered to the mortal woman once more. 'Ah, I wonder...' he thought to himself, but did not yet know how to finish that thought.

Elladan met his brother and Legolas near the shore, where the elves could just touch the shingled rocks of the lakebed. He had to swim a little closer to land, as he found out this human was at least a half-foot shorter than him, or three-quarters of a foot for good measure.

"Arigato gozaimashita ne," ((Thanks so much)) the woman chirped, then sprang from Elladan's arms and sloshed to shore, leaving the red-faced male elves behind. They came as close as they could without exposing anything important.

Legolas stopped in waist-deep water and nudged Elrohir, "What now?" 

Elrohir shrugged, "Ask her to turn around."

"What good would that do?"

"Just try it. Make gestures."

Legolas rolled his eyes then motioned at the woman, swizzling his pointer finger, "Turn around, woman."

The woman looked at him, blinked, then turned around, and then turned back around 360 degrees. Legolas groaned. "Elbereth! I told you this child would not understand!"

Seeing her out of the water, Elladan bit his bottom lip. Only in a relative sense was she a child. Eru had been very generous with her maturity, evident through her tight and form-fitting suit, blue as sapphire and smooth as snakeskin, sheathing her legs yet cut off at the shoulders. The scabbard of a long knife was tucked haphazardly into a drench sash, which shared the hue of lavender discoloration in her shoulder-length hair. Her shoes were another story entirely. Along the flanks of the outfit were parallel white lines, and peculiarly down the back were a trio of complex white symbols bleached into the fabric. Surely they were arcane runes, for Elladan doubted any letter that complex would be wieldy for written language. She appeard to Elladan very intriguing indeed, in more ways that one.

Through Legolas' eyes, on the other hand, she also appeared not very bright as she just stood there, blinking, as he was working up a hubaloo trying to get her to turn around. Elrohir had joined in as well, "Look! Look over there!" he cried, jabbing his finger toward the wall of trees behind her, "It's a giant spider! Look! An orc!"

Finally she turned around and the three of them started into a mad dash to where their clothes were laid out to dry, when suddenly--

"Hayaku hashirikanerun wa ne." ((Can't run very fast, can you?)) she giggled, turning back around and causing the three of them to scramble back into the water, mortified. Resuming her innocent pretense, she sauntered up to their destination and picked up Elrohir's pants. "Donata no?" ((Whose are these?)) she asked, measuring them up to herself to find they were much to long for her. Too tight too.

"What's this here?" 

"Estel!" Elrohir had never before been so relived to hear the voice of his little brother. "Get her out of our clothes and escort her back to ada's!"

Estel stepped into the lake clearing with confusion written all over his face. Then he beheld the strange human girl. "Oh? And who might you be?"

"She doesn't understand you!" Elrohir hissed impatiently, "Just get her out of here so we can get dressed!"

A wicked smile crossed Estel's lips, suddenly grasping the situation and the control he had in it. "Hmm. Perhaps I would prefer to stay here and practice fishing..."

"Estel please," Elladan interrupted on a softer note, "This is embarrassing enough as is."

"What would be my reward?"

"Estel!" all three elves cried in unison.

"Fine! Fine! I will do it!" the young man sighed and hooked the woman under the forearm and began dragging her off, still holding Elrohir's pants.

"Estel!" Elrohir cried.

Estel rolled his eyes, pried the pants out of her hand then tossed it back onto the rock. "Come my dear," the young man said to the woman, slipping Elladan a wink, who was staring at her with unwavering interest.

Elladan turned away, sinking further into the water.

When the two of them were out of sight, Elrohir turned to his older twin with a sigh and jested, "What devilry have we unleashed upon Rivendell this time, do you suppose? Perhaps another disaster like that time we brought home a wolf cub... You remember that?... Elladan?"

But Elladan was lost to his thoughts.

================================================

Myu's Monologue

Entry No.: 00923881

Subject: nnnNNNOOOooo!!!

Date: 00-00-0000 (damned if I know)

***********

Okay. I was falling out of the sky at 3,653 feet (my CPU measured it). And I was looking down over wilderness as far as the eye could see thinking, 'hmm, this is unusual'. At that point my CPU chip began to calculate the acceleration of gravity minus accumulative wind resistance and estimate a time to impact, and I started to wonder; why am I not screaming?

At about 500 feet, I thought about going for a long, drawn out 'Oh, ssshhhiiiiiiiiiiitt!!!!", then took it back, thinking whoever started that trend was a moron. (Who in their right mind would want to waste their last words addressing poo-poo?) So I said the next thing that came to mind;

"Taaaaqquuiiiiiiiitttooos!!!!!!!!!!" 

And then, SPLASH!!!

I hit water-surface with the force of a full-throttle bullet train smashing into a brick wall and plunged all the way to the bottom of a 73.2-foot lake (CPU measured that too). I just sat on the lake-floor for a long dazed moment as various built-in defensive polymers began to disengage in my subcutaneous tissue. 

What in the six worlds of reincarnation happened back there?

I figured this was as good a place to ponder that as any, seeing as how I still had 2 hours and 57 minutes until I required oxygen again. Obviously professor Kudo was still in the process of calibrating his machine... But by Amida, If I didn't know any better, I'd say that piece of junk actually worked! It definitely didn't look anything like the year 3076, unless I landed in the middle of a wildlife reserve. But just how far back (or forward) in time did I go? This was all very spooky.

I looked up at the sun dimly twinkling through the surface of the lake, and noticed a silhouette of someone swimming over me at the surface, hopefully a guy since he wasn't wearing a shirt... or swim trunks either. Yikes! Then another buck-nekkid guy game swimming in, then another. At that point I swam up to see what this was all about. (Maybe I landed in the middle of a nudist colony. Yum, yum!)

I surfaced behind one of them and when he turned around, I swear I could have melted into a puddle (metaphorically, otherwise I would have diluted into the lake water). And from what I could tell, the face wasn't the only thing sizzling hot about this gent. I had never had such a compelling desire to pinch someone's tooshie since I saw Orlando Bloom in that old re-filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean". Wow! XOXO! Oh, yeah, and there were two other brown-haired guys, too. I think they were clones. Anywayz, I started pretending I couldn't swim to try to get that blond cutie to hold me. And he just kinda floats there looking at me like 'duuhh...' My big old Buddha! That guy's an idiot! What kinda gentleman just sits there and watches a lady drown?! He might be cute as a cupcake, but he's got the smarts of a lobotomized hamster!

Eventually, one of the clones courteously swam me to shore. When we got there, I figured out that they were actually a shy lot (not actually nudists) and would not come out while I was watching. I supposed they could tell I was putting them on when I kept turning around in circles then they wanted me to, in fact, "turn around" and stay that way (either that or they think I'm mentally retarded now). I *did* trick them once into coming out (ack! I could just cover that blond one with whipped cream and eat him alive!) before a rather stubbly-looking chap walked up (definitely one of the un-tampered type-one humans, a.k.a. mother-nature's breed). The young man dragged me off to let the blond guy (my baby), and the two clones put their clothes on in peace. 

Oh well. Tough luck.

So I get dragged off down this forest path by that type-one (well, maybe not dragged. A type one wouldn't be able to force me to go anywhere if I didn't want him to), feeling like I landed in a bad episode of some B-rated sci-fi flick. But, then, as I'm heading to where I'm guessing that type-one lives, and see what qualifies as civilization for these people, I realize this isn't a b-rated sci-fi flick, this is bad joke. A very bad joke! Not a cellphone or computer or anything resembling a machine within sight! I mean, these people ride on animals and seemingly have no form of entertainment other than eating, talking and singing to each other! I have no idea where or when this is supposed to be, which is go-figure since I don't know taquitos about the European dark ages. But I beg and plead every single divine power ever conceived by any religion of any race in the galaxy, that this is just Amish country, so that I have some other option besides living with farm animals and sitting around with a bunch of dim-witted goobers who haven't even discovered electricity yet. But, taquitos, I haven't even seen any proof that these people have gotten past hunting and gathering!

And what is up with these people? I know the guy who took me to this humble little dwelling is a type-one, but what about the others? It's the weirdest thing, but I can swear that everyone else here, that cute blonde and the clones included, don't quite look human. I've seen older model type-two humans before (minimum-wage bums who can't afford the new type-three-- yeah, yeah, dad bought mine for me), and these people *kinda* look like type-twos, but then again they kinda don't. For one thing, my CPU isn't identifying any protocol with them, so I'm beginning to doubt they're artificial at all, even though they look artificial compared to the type-one here. They're very tall and skinny, but also muscular and hairless (which I've observed firsthand (^-^)), their ears are deformed, and they, well call me crazy, don't make any sound when they walk. I'd almost say they were aliens if it weren't for that stubbly-chap who I clearly recognize as a type-one earthling. 

I wonder...

Anyways, after having sight-seen a bit I ended up pacing like a caged tiger in what I'm guessing is an impromptu lodging they've arranged for me, documenting this rant. (yes, sometimes cereberal-implant computers are handy for soliloquy and entertainment, I'll give them that much). I was first interrupted exactly 1 hour(s) and 26 minutes ago, when alluvasudden one of the clones at the lake came in to see me and started talking (in... English? Welsh? Danish? What?) with gestures. From what I deduced from his make-shift sign-language, he was the one who swam me to shore. After a while of talking more or less to himself while sitting in front of me, he spaced out then looked at me strange and reached up to brush his hand over my cheek ((no, not that cheek)). He's very cute. So I gave his cheek ((no, not that cheek)) a good pinch. I think it hurt him though because he went "Ahhh!" and clasped his entire face like I just ripped it off his skull, but oh well. What a pansy.

After rubbing his face for a good length of time, the clone made a series of gestures which involved scooping something toward his mouth, putting a hand on his stomach then pointing at me, and I thought, uh-oh, he's wanting me to eat something? I don't have a proper digestive system to deal with organic foods, and even if I did, they wouldn't be of much use because my body isn't made of the organic compounds present in plants and animals. (My 'food' is a type of nano-tech serum that replaces damaged or exhausted tissue, and is injected into a subcutaneous (under-the-skin) reception port in my wrist.) I've been wondering how to get out of that ever since that guy hurried off thinking we had made some sort of agreement. (And I tried to decline, believe me).

So I started pacing again, and it gradually began to sink in that my room is tactfully decorated, yeah, but about as boring as watching a 200 mHz PC boot up. I mean, no TV and no internet? What are you supposed to do here? Play with the doilies? All things considered, I was more than eager to have some fun when I saw the blonde hottie from the lake walk by 11 minutes and 57 seconds later. I waited till a few seconds till he was further down the hall, then tiptoed after him, but about halfway-down, he heard me and looked over his shoulder (I don't know how. That guy must either have ESP or have a set of ears that can hear a gnat fart a mile off). He took me back to my room again, sat me down on the bed and motioned for me to stay =(. I snuck off a moment later =). He caught me again and took me back =(. I kept telling him "Aishiteru" (I love you). I suppose he's mistaken it for my name now, because he's been saying it back to me quite often (which is fine by my standards).  After the third attempt at spying on him and being apprehended forthwith, I thought about trying it one more time, but at that point, a pair of girls just walked in without notice and started tugging off my clothes (O_o)! They scared the taquitos out of me until I realized what they were just changing my outfit! (Note: I'm still not comfortable with it, but if that's their custom, I guess I'll have to go along.) Besides, it's not like I can talk my way out of it. 

So as of now, I'm pacing again after they just got done putting me a dress that approximates my eye-color and my punk hair dye, tho' they had a little trouble fitting me around the lung area (one of them is obviously jealous. ha! I guess this model _is _useful after all). And apparently, Amish people (or whatever they are) don't wear underwear. Either that, or they just forgot or are up to something. Either way, it's very uncomfortable, not to mention risque if a breeze happens by (*_*;). Honestly, I could care less if the shred up my stupid janitor's uniform and use it to wipe their horses' butts, but if a dress without a bust support and panties is my only other option, I actually wouldn't mind walking around Amish country in a blue jump-suit that reads "Zatsu-Eki-In" ((Custodial staff)) across the back in bold letters (Heh, as if they could read Chinese characters to begin with. For all they know It could say 'the Future Messiah').

Well, anyways, they're almost done with me, so I'm gonna wrap this entry up lamely and say that I can only hope this doesn't turn into a very prolonged European-history field trip, and that's all I can think of for now. 

~ a very worried Kaneko Myu signing out~

&&&&&&&&&&&&

PART 2 

?????????????????????????????????

"Is she ready?" Elladan asked the maid who stepped out of the room, carrying the woman's odd, shiny clothing. He was still rubbing the side of his face where she had pinched him. This creature, mortal woman or no, was indeed deceptively strong for her size.

The maid shook her head, "What a strange creature you have found, if I may say, milord. Not in all my years have I seen anything like her. How can a woman grow purple hair? Or have eyes that are both blue and green?" 

Elladan shrugged, "May I go in to see her, Lothiel?"

"Certainly not, young lord! Have you no wits about you at all?" the old elf-maid huffed. Lothiel used to be one of Elladan's and his brother's nannies when they were growing up, and she still considered it her job to straighten them out into 'little gentile-elves'. "We are still in the midst of dressing her! You would not believe the trouble we have gone through trying to find a gown that matched both purple and blue-green! And further more, she is not built like an elf. Her gown had to be cropped up, among other things, and her hair is only shoulder-length, much too short to pin into a suitable do..."

Usually, Elladan would be stifling a yawn when Lothiel waffled about female vanity, but in this instance, he was hanging on to every word. Just the thought of the maids being "in the midst of dressing her", caused his eyes to cloud over and his mind to stray to places it should not be going.

"Young lord? Are you listening to me?"

Elladan snapped back to the present, "Aye, of course, Lothiel."

"Then what did I just ask you?"

Elladan drew a blank, "You asked; 'How can a woman grow purple hair, or have eyes that are both blue and green?'" 

Lothiel swatted him on the shoulder, "Nay! That was two minutes ago, elfling! What I asked, is whether or not you have come here to escort our woman-guest to dinner. Have you?"

Elladan answered quickly, "Aye, I have. Would you think I've come just to loiter outside the lady's door?"

"In your case, yes," Lothiel shot back tartly, then cracked the door open just enough to slip back through it, "Wait here. I shall see if she's ready."

Elladan did as she bode, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms tightly over his chest. He took a deep, soothing breath. He had no idea why he should be feeling so nervous. After all, what is a mortal woman to an elf? Elladan felt somehow shallow and foolish to admit he was so easliy wooed by her; by her dynamic figure and full lips. Yet he could not help but fancy this strange mortal. He too had mortal blood in him, after all, he reminded himself. Then again, something told him she was no normal mortal. Somehow, spontaneously falling out of the sky, and surviving the impact, did not strike him as a normal thing that a mortal would do (he was still trying to figure that one out). What race was she? Where did she come from? What was this strange chattery language she spoke? If only he could communicate with her...

"Tsukare-sou desu ne!" ((You look tired))

Elladan spun around, having been too deep in thought to notice the door opening, "Ah there you are! I've been wait--"

The elf froze and drank in the sight of her. The dress was a low V-neck that suited her full figure beautifully; a sheer, mossy suede shot through with rich white-gold thread the color of her hair (the blonde part of it anyways). The maids had taken special care to braid up the purple locks, which now likened decorative ribbons streaming from her short mane, as her bangs were pulled back in typical elvish fashion behind her rounded ears. A black, lacy choker helped to accent the length of her neck, and a violet linen sash shaped out her curved waistline. She had been lightly misted in perfume--

"Shimatta! Sonna hen-na kao wo mata shinai de ne!" ((Don't make that weird face at me again, dammit!))

Elladan glanced into her glaring greenish eyes then flashed an amused grin. "You look beautiful." He muttered, then heard Lothiel clearing her throat. "...And a very fine job on the part of your hand-maidens as well!" He offered out his elbow, "Shall we?"

The strange woman tilted her head and merely poked the elbow held out to her. The maids tittered in the background. Elladan had to manually reach out and direct her arm to hook under his. "Ai, so much I have to teach you, fair one," he sighed as he began leading her down the hall. 

The elf walked the woman through the corridors of his father's great house, down the open, forest-scented halls, cloisters and arcades that passed amidst the fine wood-carven artistry of elven architects. He watched her unwaveringly as she appraised her surroundings.

"Mina kekko kirei desu ne." ((It's all quite pretty, isn't it?)) she sighed, and he could tell from her tone of voice that it was a compliment.

"What is your name?" he asked her, more or less just to get her attention. "Elladan," he said pointing to himself when she turned to look at him.

"Eradan?" she attempted.

"Nay," he said slowly, shaking his head, then pointed at himself again, "Elladan."

"Eladan?"

He nodded, deeming it close enough, then pointed to her and raised both eyebrows in question. "Name?"

"Name Kaneko Myu."

"Mm?"

She smiled, then gently, took his hand and clasped it in both of hers. "Myu."

Elladan knitted his brow, "Mew?"

"Myu."

"Myu?"

She nodded then dropped his hand. Elladan watched her for a long moment, thinking he had never heard such a strange name before in his life (which was saying a lot for a 3000-year old elf). He had the urge to ask her if she was jesting, but realized it would not do him any good. He took a deep breath and continued with her to the dining hall, softly humming an old elvish ballad to himself. 

When they arrived, Elladan took his prescribed seat at the main table upon the dais, which was between his brother Elrohir and his father, Elrond, Lord of Rivendell. He could only watch on spitefully as Myu was seated right next to Legolas; looking very pleased about it, not to mention. In effect, this put her across the table and one seat to the right from him. This was the seat that Arwen occupied when she was home, his younger sister who had been abroad in Lorien for several decades now. Elladan was eager to introduce Arwen to Estel, his young human foster brother, quite certain they would get along well. Estel, incidentally, was seated on the other side of Myu.

"Try this. It's delicious," Estel offered Myu, piling a few dumplings onto her plate.

Myu looked at him with a frozen smile, while her eyebrows raised and her eyes straying to the head of the table sheepishly. "Kekko desu yo. Tabemono mo iranai no desu keredo," ((That's quite alright. I don't need any food,)) she murmured out one side of her mouth, trying to shoo Estel's hand away.

Elladan looked to his father. The elf-lord's eyes were upon her, as cold and immovable as the black gates of Mordor. "And you say this woman fell from the sky, Ellahir?" "Ellahir" was the elf-lord's hybrid name to address both his twin sons at once, as they were often involved in the same bouts.

"Yes, adar," Elrohir answered through a mouth-full of food.

"Anything else I should know about her?"

Elladan swallowed his wine thickly. His father was a politician, a good one, which always made him nervous whenever they talked business, "Her name is Myu."

Elrond's eyes slowly peeled from Myu and focused on his eldest some, "Mew? What sort of a name is that?"

"I do not know," Elladan murmured, stabbing at his food, "That is what she told me... and she says it 'Myu', not 'Mew'."

"I had thought her name was 'Aishiteru'," Legolas piped up.

"Myu is the name she gave me when I introduced myself," Elladan shrugged innocently.

Legolas turned and looked at the alleged 'Myu', "What is your name?" 

Myu looked dreamily into his deep-blue eyes. "Aishiteru!" ((I love you!)) 

Legolas turned and gestured at her with an expression that said "I told you so".

"She does not understand you," Elladan argued, "Perhaps she is trying to tell you something because she rejoinders that to just about everything you say."

Legolas looked at him incredulously, "What are you incinuat--"

"Enough," Elrond commanded, "Eat. 'Myu' will be suitable if that is to what she responds."

Legolas exhaled noisily and went to pick up his fork, but froze cold when he felt a hand suddenly sliding up his thigh. He turned and looked at the woman beside him, eyebrows perked with disbelief. She merely flashed a devilish grin and began massaging her fingers over his leg. He stiffened, gave her a reprimanding look and slid his own hand under the table to peel her hand off his thigh, then began to eat again. He had not gotten two bites down before he felt her slipper running up and down his calf. This was remedied by simply relocating the offended leg out of her reach.

"Will you not eat?" Estel asked her, startling her from what she was doing, "It's very good."

Myu turned to him and began speaking with gestures that made no sense. "Kyou no tenki wa kekko atatakakatta desu ne. Yuube kumoru you na no ni, ashita made ni haru kamoshiremasen ne." ((The weather was pretty warm today, wasn't it? Even though it looks like its going to get cloudy tonight, it will probably clear up by tomorrow.))

Estel didn't understand a word, but nodded all the same, just to be polite. Now that her attention was diverted from him, Legolas was now free to have his meal in peace.

"Watashi no iken de, ame ga furanai mitai desu," ((It doesn't look like it will rain, in my opinion.)) Myu said as she shifted around. 

The hand was back again and Legolas was trying to ignore it. He had to admit, it wasn't all that unpleasant. Tenderly, she caressed the stiff tendons above his knee, and loosened his muscles as she worked her way up. Her touch was pleasant, very pleasant indeed, and welcome in an unwelcomed sort of way. She was trying to do this inconspicuously whilst she spoke to Estel. 

"We need to teach you Westron, don't we?" Estel interrupted the woman, "Right Legolas? Are you feeling unwell?"

The blond elf gave a start. "Fine," he ground out, then clouded back into his daze, his fork hanging in limbo between his mouth and his plate. He took a mighty swig of wine, as her massage continued to hold him in trace-like status. Myu kept talking to keep Estel's attention. But Legolas barely noticed what was going on around him as he succumbed to her ministrations and let her have her way with him, breathing out in soft sighs. His breath caught in his throat as the hand slid between his thighs, making his blood rush down there as well. She slid upwards... and further still... then too far up...

The Mirkwood yelped yelped suddenly and scrambled to his feet, banging his knee on the table and knocking over his chair in the process. Elladan had been watching the whole scene unfold, and was quite sure now that something was amiss between Myu and Legolas, even though the woman tried to cover it up. She looked up at Legolas innocently, "Doushitan desu ka, anata?" ((What's wrong, darling?))

Keeping his gaze away from Myu, Legolas stooped to right his upset chair. "Excuse me," he uttered shakily, "But something has come up..." He dwelt on the irony in that statement for a moment as he fought the urge to shift his leggings around (which now felt about two sizes too small) then bowed stiffly, turned, and left.

Myu watched him hurriedly stride out the main entrance of the dining hall with interest, then tuned and stood herself, mimicking his bow. "Ekzcuse me," she crunched out, mimicking the prince, "Baht somesing has come up..." then took off after Legolas.

Elladan too thought of leaving the dinnertable, but thought better of it noting his father's reproving glance.

**************

Myu's Musings

Entry No.: 00923881

Subject: Amish Country??

Date: 01-01-0000 (it's as good a day as any to start)

Squeeeeeeeeee!!!! I'm so happy!!! Whew! *pant pant* Let me calm down a sec. Okay. Here's the hype:

After I scared my anata off by being a little too --ahem-- forward (^_~) (I think his name's Legoras), I went after him to apologize. The courtyard was pitch-black save for a little splash of moonlight. So at first, I couldn't find him. I had to adjust my optical wavelength to infrared (a.k.a. heat vision), to a very low, almost microwave frequency, in order to find him. His body omitted very little heat-- again a very unhumanlike quality, but he's still cute!-- though still enough heat to make him stand out from the tree he was sitting in. I figured he was ignoring me, (either that or he suddenly went deaf, considering the noise I was making to get his attention). 

Anyways, I knew there was nothing I could say to him (nothing that he would understand, anyways), so I tried climbing up. To be honest about it, I've never climbed a tree before in my life. To be brutally honest about it, I've never even seen a tree before in my life. Humanity had pretty much wiped out earth's entire ecosystem by 2900 and set up a bunch of man-made filters to take care of the atmosphere. 

My first attempt was to hop up and grab onto to the lowest branch. I got one leg up, then the other wrapped around from the other side so I was hanging upside down like a sloth. I had no idea what to do from that point, so I dropped back down. My second attempt, which was to try to pull my legs up over my head, was thwarted by the recollection that I wasn't wearing any underwear. So I tried the sloth-approach again. (-_-;)

At first I thought I heard a chipmunk barking at me, but then realized that it was Legoras, trying not to crack up. When I fell back out of my sloth posture and sort of dangled there, he failed miserably and burst into hysterics. I had never heard such a pleasant laugh! It almost made me embarrassed when my sour, quacky laugh added to his, realizing how silly I looked trying to climb (^-^). After a good moment, we quieted down and, to my amazement, he reached down a hand to help me up to the lower branch, then set himself down beside me. 

I had never felt so nervous in my life! (6_6;) My heart was racing. My palms were getting clammy. Legoras said something, more to himself, then smiled. He had such piercing blue eyes and a complexion so fair I swear it seemed to glow in the dark (I kinda think he was glowing a bit?). I said I was sorry in the only way I knew how, suddenly regretting I couldn't speak his language... I had so much I wanted to tell him, feeling him so close to me that our sleeves brushed. Just then, without warning, he leaned over and nipped the top of my ear O_o. Now I wasn't thinking "just what the hell was that all about?!", because it just seemed, I don't know, so *right*. Just so... so romantic! His breath smelt of wine and he had a slight, earthy musk to him; very pure, and very male. He nipped me again. Wow. I just sat there rigid, afraid to move, afraid I might scare him off again. His wine-scented breath tickled my neck as he laughed nervously, then drew back. I turned to him pleadingly (big puppy-dog eyes), and he answered by cupping my face with one hand and tracing his thumb over my lips. And then he smiled, dropped from the tree and disappeared into the cloisters. He did not even look back... ! 

(_*) D'oh

So he left me. I sat there watching my feet dangle from beneath my skirt, too numb to even move. The night breeze had never felt so cold and empty, yet I had never felt so indescribably warm inside! His touch still lingered and I was actually trembling. What did he mean by what he did? Was that a sign of love among his people? And why did he run up a tree to get away from me? I mean, what's up with that? I'm so confused. I sure hope I hadn't ruined it all with that thigh-rubbing fiasco (what was I thinking? doing that to such a sensitive old-fashioned guy?! Shame on me!). I thought I might make him think I was some silly ho, or something. But then again, he hadn't tried to score. So that must mean he really cares, right? I don't know. I'm completely inexperienced in these matters. What do you think computer? I paid 4,800 credits for you, so the least you could do is tell me something more important than my altitude or crush depth.

*sigh*

I'm not going to get much sleep this night. Especially with these people who keep knocking at my door. The last thing I need is to sit here all night listening to foreign gibberish and practicing mime. Go away.

~ a quite sleepy Kaneko Myu signing out~

**************

PART 3 

Vocab

Firiel = mortal woman

Mounted at the front gates of Imladris and ready to depart, Legolas was just about to remark to one of his flanking escorts how nice a day it was when he saw the one thing he did not want to see before he left. "Myu..."

"I beg your pardon, milord?" Celegol asked, wondering why the son of his liege had just made the sound of a cat. When the escort did not receive an answer, he followed Legolas' glare, "Is it that strange little firiel harassing you, lord?" He did a double take, "Why does she have purple hair?"

Legolas felt almost insulted that his escort had felt this mortal woman a threat to him. His horse stirred, feeling his rigid posture through the stirrups. "Nay, Celegol, she is nothing for you to fret over." Myu tried to wave at him, but he overlooked her and returned his attention impatiently to the gates, which the Imladris guards had yet to open. He was wondering briefly what they were waiting on when the answer came to him in the form of Elladan's voice, clearly discernable from his twin by the stark edge of seriousness in his voice.

"If I may speak to you before you depart..."

Legolas gazed down at him from the stirrups with cold blue eyes. "We cannot tarry. Lord Celeborn is awaiting the message from my adar."

Elladan gave him a contemptuous look, despite the fact he was looking up at him. To make it clear, he steadied Legolas' sandy-brown horse by the bridal. "A moment longer will do you no harm, son of Thranduil. I only inquire about that which passed between you and the firiel last night after dinner."

Hot anger flashed in the blond elf's eyes. The fire leapt to his tongue he blurted out, not caring if his words wounded Elladan; "Why is it you ask? Is it that you have a sudden fetish for mortal women, o son of half-elven?" 

Elladan answered back with equal fury but, unlike the wood-elf, managed to keep himself in check, "Nay.... Legolas," he said, repressing a few choice words, "I query thus because she had locked herself in her room and would not come out. I assume that she is upset over something you said to her, for, after all, this would not be the first time you had said something discourteous to those staying in our household."

"Those were dwarves," Legolas protested with his nose wrinkled, nearly cutting off the end of his sentence, "I said no such thing to her. I only made it clear to her that I was not interested in the attentions of a mortal and bode her a good night." In a glance, he saw that Myu was still standing there, and, most embarrassingly, still trying to get his attention. "Now, if you will order your guards to open the gate, I shall be on my way and you shall not have to deal with my 'discourtesy' for another score or decade until I am sent on courier routine again," Legolas ended tartly, with his nose upturned daring Elladan to deny him.

A heated frozen moment lingered between them before Elladan released the horse's bridal and waved a go-ahead to the gate guardsmen. With a load moan, the heavy wooden gates were reeled open and Legolas dug his heels hard into the horses flanks, urging it into a quick start. The two Mirkwood escorts trailed him, but Elladan did not see them off. He only turned to see that Myu was heading off as well.

88888888888888888888888888

Myu's Misadventures  
  
Entry No.: 00923884  
  
Subject: Loves me not  
  
Date: 01-02-0000  
  
My brain has a screen-saver. No joke. I just found that out today when I experienced boredom-overload. Evidently, it's an automated game of pong where the computer plays with itself (Bad computer! Bad!). I spent all morning "watching" that and reflecting upon last night. I just couldn't stop thinking of Legoras! No one's ever really cared about old Kaneko Myu here, so I'm kinda afraid to say he likes me, or actually "liked me", past tense. After what happened today, that's no longer possibe.  
  
I'm lost in the middle of nowhere. I'm miffed. I'm itchy. The itch is coming from the cerebral Ethernet port in my wrist, which seems to have an allergy to all this damn pollen and nature crap around here. Typically this port is used to download massive amounts of info needed for educational purposes, so instead of buying a textbook, you just credit an online database and have the entire text downloaded directly into your brain. Nifty, huh? The auxiliary co-cerebral CPU-chip translates binary electronic frequencies into human brainwaves, and then impresses it into implanted memory databanks. Most people have this port put in at the base of their skulls so they don't have to run an internal wire down their arm, as it tends to have irritating side effects. Such as itching. I'm regretting I insisted on a wrist port right about now.  
  
Cerebral Ethernet can also be used to pass information between two people, which brings me to what I wanted to mention: cybernetically bumming the language from somebody here so I can figure out what the hell's going on. The only problem is, I doubt the port is compatible with the lower model humans here (or whatever those point-eared guys are), so that won't help me out any. I would, however, like to test that hypothesis, maybe see if I can download the language from someone, or maybe upload mine, but I can't likely do that when I'm lost in the middle of a forested nowhere. And the reason for that is... Hmm. Just scratch that and let me just start from the beginning of this horrible day...  
  
Here goes:  
  
It began with being woken up at the crack of dawn for breakfast in bed, which wasn't pretty (my definition of morning is at least high noon or later). After the maid had left, all pissed off at me, I had to find some way to dispose of the evidence that I can't eat. Dumping it out the window may not have been a good idea since the eventual stink would attract attention and flies. So I thought I might wander around town trying to find a dog or something that might appreciate it.  
  
I was walking in the main plaza, trying my best not to look conspicuous as I carried the bulging napkin of breakfast (dribbling fluids profusely at that point, I might add), when I spotted Legoras a good twenty yards off, heading out the main gates on a horse. He saw me and only offered a nod before he spurred off. Wha--? He's leaving?! Unacceptable! I had it on my agenda to see him today! And I was determined to keep that item, even if it meant going after him.  
  
But there was a setback.  
  
The good news was; these Amish people (I'll just call them that until proven otherwise) had brought back my underwear, clothes and Koshito blade after having washed and/or inspected them (hmm). The bad news was; I had left all those things in my room. I didn't figure going out in a grandma nightie would further my social image, so I hurried back to my room to get dressed and set off after him.  
  
Stop here to take a moment and remark that I was NOT obsessed with Legoras. I was merely bored and needed to get a little fresh air. Yeah. That's it.  
  
*sigh*  
  
So, when I came to the main gate and tried to pass through it myself, a pair of guards stopped me. They didn't seem to notice that yapping at someone who couldn't speak their language wasn't very effective, and of course my "Desasete kudasai!" ((Let me pass!)) did a fat lot of good, too. Hence I did what any logical person would do in a situation like that: I nailed both guards in the stomachs and made a run for it while they were doubled over in pain. And they didn't even come after me! I just knuckled them in the gut once and they were on the ground, balled up in fetus-positions and whining like a couple of babies. Gee, I feel safe now knowing the high-class security they have there in Rivendell. Pathetic lower-model humans! Mwa-ha!  
  
Anyways, after I ran off into the surrounding forest, (which was basically just a bunch of trees and rocks if you want some imagery), I snooped around for a promising Legoras-trail. I didn't see which way he went, but considering he was riding on a horse, I would say following the trail filled with hoof-prints was a good enough guess. But unfortunately it forked off in several places. Feeding off random guesses, I spent exactly 13 minutes and 45.7 seconds dashing and bounding randomly down several paths, chock-full of boulders, ruts, fallen tree limbs, creek beds, and even a dead squirrel, before I heard a shout coming from within the woods.  
  
"Orks!" he sounded like he yelled.  
  
I braked on instinct, a too-quick reaction which made me trip over a stupid rock and fly face-first into the dirt (no implication that other rocks are any smarter). When I picked myself up, grumbling and spitting out debris, I heard rushed footfalls drawing nigh... in other words, foreshadowing.  
  
You know that scene in just about every action movie, where a gang of bad guys makes a sudden dramatic entry (i.e. crashing through a glass window, or in this case, tearing through bushes), and the one lone good guy administers an indiscriminant @ss-whooping and saves the day? Yes? Well, this was just about the case here, save it was the outnumbering bad guys who were giving the good guy's @ss a thorough pounding (That's reality for you). This "good guy" looked a lot like Estel, same dark, stringy hair and all. Maybe they were friends, since they both wore black leather dusters. However, this new guy had an older- looking face, even more profuse stubble, a pointy nose, and a rusty knife embedded the gap below his left shoulder blade. Ouch.  
  
The "bad guys" looked like a bunch of pug-faced jocks that had been turned down by the World Wrestling Federation for lack of personal hygiene. Taquitos! I can't think how anyone could let themselves get so dirty that their skin turns tar-black and their teeth fungus yellow! What in the six worlds is that all about! And for Amida's sake, haven't they ever heard of a Kleenex? I was standing in the path, watching all this and minding my own business when one of them, that had a clear, gooey line stretching from the bottom of his nose to the back of his hand, randomly charged up and tried to skewer me with a scimitar. What the hell did I do to him, anyhoo? Jerk-o.  
  
So as you can see, it wasn't my choice to get involved in the first place. As my attacker raised his weapon and screamed at me like a nutcase, I unholstered my Koshito blade with the quickness and trimmed a little off the top -- well, actually a lot off the top. But as my luck goes, hateful gravity was there to pull the decapitated, blood-spurting body down on top of me, paralyzing me in vile disgust as it smeared down the front of my freshly washed shirt. Gag!  
  
As I still stood there wondering if the Amish people would mind laundering my clothes again, that Estel-looking guy ran up and grabbed hold of me with his good arm, grunting in a great deal of pain. He shouted something as he ushered me into a sprint on down the path, then gave me a shove off and drew his sword, turning to face his pursuers. I realized then that the guy was trying to get me to flee so he could sacrifice himself and cover my escape. How sweet! I stopped and looked back. The brutes had him in a hootie ring of at least twelve or thirteen to boot, with more still coming out of the woodwork. I knew this type-one loser wasn't going to last two minutes against all of them. So I U-turned and gave *him* the shove off. "Nigete! Hayaku!" ((Get away! Quickly!)) I told him, then folded out the Koshito blade to extended length, resulting in a full-sized katana sword.

And here they come...

Let me just start out saying that I have little experience in combat. In fact, if you don't deem virtual reality video games as experience, I have entirely none at all. So just rid yourself right now of any false hopes that you'll be reading about an impressive, rallying fight scene. Then proceed.  
  
Subject: [Re: my first fight]  
  
The dirtbags had me surrounded and were closing in fast, looking like a bunch of pimples begging to be popped. My first opponent came at me, swung and missed simply because I tripped over a tree root while I was back-peddling and stumbled. (Damn trees. I can see why we got rid of those useless leaf-shedding tracheophytes in AD 2576 to begin with). I countered with the Koshito and he brought up his sword to block it, unwitting that his sword, in fact, could not block it. In the upshot, my first opponent toppled into about three or four pieces. Go me.  
  
The next challenger came from behind. I had plenty of time to turn and meet him, and I *did*, but my parry was way off and he sunk his axe blade into my flank. I felt a brief "pain", which was more like a little nudge from my corporal management systems saying "incidentally, you have a battle axe in your side". But it quickly subsided as the dislodged nanotech fibers (designed to cave in on impact and expand back out) filled up the gash and forced the blade out. While that happened, I was stumped trying to figure out the least sloppy way to dismember this goon. Call me lame, but I settled on another decapitation. Oh, well. (It was still gross, but I've been pretty much desensitized by the modern media, so it was nothing I couldn't deal-with.)  
  
After a little trial and error, my opponents finally appreciated the fact that solid steel, along with whatever else that holds its shape via electron degeneracy pressure (i.e. anything that classifies as 'physical matter'), could offer no more resistance to a Koshito blade than thin air. So, under command of their leader, they threw down their shields and excess armor and came at me all at once, brandishing their Neanderthal melee weapons. What happened next was nothing I would mention in a fencing audition, that's for sure... The edge of a knife stabbed into my spine... A mace hit me upside the head... The point of a sword thrust through my back and came out the other side. I managed to pick them off one by one, but I don't think I got off a single hit without being in violated by steel in some fashion. I figure, when they all ran off screaming in terror, they were more afraid of the fact I didn't go down over the fact I was taking *them* down.  
  
In the aftermath, the Estel-guy, who didn't "Nigete! Hayaku!" ((Get away! Quickly!)) like I told him, stood behind me with his eyes wide and bulging as I turned around. When I asked if he was going to thank me, he wet himself and ran away (honestly, I don't have proper evidence that he wet himself, but he sure did scream pretty loud). With his knife-wound bleeding so profusely, he didn't get too far before he collapsed in a bush, squirming in agony. So I went over to help him. I put away my blade, held my hand out and asked "Name? Name?" 

The guy screamed. (Maybe I should just call him "Eek!" and be done with it). This wasn't going well at all. While he was trying to scramble out of the bushes on three of four limbs, he rethought his actions, then stopped, looked at me, and pointed at the knife in his back, making angsty noises. I assumed that meant he wanted me to take it out. So I grabbed hold of the hilt, taking queues like 'argh', 'ooh' and 'mmph' until it came free. Success! (I think) Now, with his wound now open and bleeding even more profusely, he tried to crawl out of the bush again, but then quit when he found himself too weak from blood loss. Taquitos! Type-ones are so inefficient! They're always leaking fluids and crap, and can't seem to maintain any form of balance with them... When they loose too much they die... When they gain too much, they leak again... I sat there with Eek! a long while, not knowing what to do about the matter.  
  
Without warning, Eek! bolted up onto his good elbow and shouted "Ork! Ork!", jabbing his pointer finger over my shoulder. I turned, looked, and sighed as I saw a mortally wounded "Ork" (one of the things I fought) hobbling towards me with his sword drawn, ready for a valiant last stand. He was in bad shape and would not have posed a threat to a toothless puppy. Regardless, I stood, raised my trusty Koshito and--- Twang! Thwack! Like a bolt out of the blue! Ork fell over dead with a crimson arrow sticking out of his back. I shifted my gaze past the body and --lo and behold-- it was my Legoras riding up the path on his horse, looking very handsome and valiant, I might add, with his bow drawn and his long blond hair billowing behind him. I guess I must have detoured and passed him on one of my wrong turns. He looked at me, then looked at the Ork corpses. And he did that for a very long time. Then he looked at Eek!, whom seemed to recognize him.  
  
Seeing his nasty knife-wound, Legoras exclaimed something to him and Eek! answered something hasty through labored breath, which made Legolas' eyes go wide. He instantly drew another arrow and pointed it at me this time. What the hell?  
  
While I stood there with my hands raised in truce (not that an arrow was particularly frightening after all I've been through), the two of them exchanged words. In a short instant, Legoras had dismounted, taking special care not to take his aim off me, collected Eek!, then mounted him... on the horse... no not like that.... He just put him on the horse, okay? And then my Legoras did something that nearly left me in tears. Can you believe it? He spurred the horse and took off as fast as he could with Eek!, leaving me in the middle of nowhere. My jaw was utterly gaping in offense!  
  
So here I am now.  
  
That all happened early afternoon. The moon's now high in the sky and I'm still sitting here in dirty garments, though a fair distance away from the fight scene so the stink doesn't bother me. There's owls monotonously hooting and insects irritatingly screeching, which would otherwise make my fingers itch to grab hold of a napalm flame-thrower and conflagrate this entire forest to the ground yelling "Shut Up!!!" at the top of my lungs, but alas, I've lost my spunk. Where did it go? I dunno. Shouldn't I be worrying about where I go from here? Or what I should do now, instead of sitting here skulking over something I can't change? No. I can't. I wish I wouldn't have entered Kudo's stupid "Time Gateway". Now I'm doomed to spend the rest of my life grooving with nature the rest of my life without ethernet, video games and vitual reality. Taquitos! I'm so stupid!

~Kaneko Myu signing out~

******************

PART 4 

Elvish vocab : 

adar = father

naneth = mother, 

firion = mortal man, 

firiel = mortal woman, 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"What happened?!" Elrohir cried eyeing the bloodstains on Legolas' tunic. It smelled distinctly like human blood, so he was not as worried for his friend as he would otherwise be. But still, while his brother continued to apply herbs to the human's injuries, Elrohir stepped out of the door of the healer's room with a look in his eyes that firmly demanded Legolas give them the whole scoop.

Legolas began: "I encountered an injured man on the way to Lorien--"

"We have figured that much seeing as how we are treating him!"

Legolas screwed his mouth up into a scowl. Sometimes Elrohir's jests could be funny, but the rest of the time, he found them tiring. "Myu was with him." Legolas glanced out of the corner at his eye at Elladan, but found him studiously still concentrating on the task at hand and aiding Elrond as they worked to stanch the man's blood-flow. Men were in particular much of more a challenge to treat since their ability to heal was considerably less effecient than that of elves.

"Aaahhhh!" Elrohir said as a lightbulb came on (metaphorically), "Myu! So that's where the little firiel went! Is she safe? Why did you not bring her with you on your way back here?"

"I did not see her on my way back here. I saw her when I met Gresham, ahead of me on the path."

Elrohir did a double-take. "How did Myu get ahead of you? She left after you did."

"She out-ran me."

"She out-ran you?"

Legolas nodded.

"And you were riding a horse?"

Nodded again. "Why did not the guards stop her from leaving?" Legolas wanted to know.

Elrohir shrugged, but his face seemed to be set with seriousness for a rare moment. "They tried to, but they startled her and she hit them and ran off. They are recovering in the room three doors down that way, if you would like a first-hand account," Elrohir jerked his head in the direction.

Legolas opened his mouth to decline, but then it dawned on him what Elohir said. It was now his turm to double-take. "Infermary? Why? What mean you by this?"

"Because she hit them."

"Because she hit them?"

"Echo!"

"Stop it."

Elrohir's smirk lasted only briefly. "One of them has a broken rib, while the other was lucky enough to only have a crack near his diaphragm. Adar said that the only other time he had treated injuries like that was when Amanthon was kicked by a horse."  

Legolas looked unperturbed at the information. "This does not surprise me. Whatever this creature is, she is not human... a witch if anything. Either way, I say good riddence and pray for your sake she does not find her way back to the Last Homely Home," Legolas glanced past Elrohir and noticed Elladan was staring at him murderously for a moment before a nudge from his adar brought his attention back to the mortal man.

Legolas changed the subject momentarily, "Who is this firion? How does he know elvish speech?"

Elrohir glanced back at the firion, then stepped off to the side, motioning Legolas with him. "Gresham of the Dunedan, Estel's mentor. Elladan and I travel with him when we hunt orc, and you can credit my brother for his ability to speak the grey tongue. He has been taking Estel out into the wilds for intensive survival training every summer now, which is what he was on his way here to do when you found him, evidentally," Elrohir said, then lowered his voice, "I am not so sure the quality of Gresham's instruction though. This is not the first time he has crossed the Imladris threshold all beaten up."

"Legolas!"

Legolas gave a start and about-faced to find Elrohir's more serious mirror image stading behind him. "Elladan," the wood-elf agknowledged tartly.

Elladan was toweling the blood off his long fingers and unting his sullied canvas apron. "Tell me where you saw Myu. Adar gave me his leave. I set off to search for her."

Legolas raised an elegant brow, "I thought you no longer cared for her."

"Besides, it is near nightfall," Elrohir added from the peanut gallery, "You will not get very far before it grows too dark to see."

Elladan clenched his jaw, "My feelings have no factor in this decision," he told Legolas, then turned to his brother, "And do you indeed forget what happened to naneth when she rode alone in the forest at night?!" 

Elrohir had to consciously check himself from rolling his eyes. It was not that he no longer felt the sadness when he was reminded of Celebrian's death, it was just that his twin acted as though it happened just yesterday and drove the matter into the ground entirely. There was such a thing as being overly cautious. "Are you certain you want someone like that to come back here? We don't even know what she is."

"An enemy spy," Legolas asserted matter-of-factly, "A necromancer."

Elladan cocked his head to one side and looked at Legolas pointedly, "What gibberish."

"Gibberish indeed! If that only you had witnessed with your own eyes, as I had, Myu singlehandedly slaying fifty orc!"

The twins shared a mirror-image glance. 

"Thirty..." came a weakened voice from within the healer's chamber, followed by Elrond's voice warning Gresham to save his strength.

"You see!" said Legolas hurriedly, "That is still an inhuman feat!"

"That little firiel slew thirty orc singlehandedly?" Elrohir affirmed with interest.

Elladan creased his brow, "And you witnessed this?"

Legolas bit his lip. "Actually... no. That is Gresham's account," he admited with difficulty, then added on a hopeful note, "I did see the bodies."

There was a brief silence. "You know," Elrohir said at last. "Bloodloss _does _do strange things to a firion's memory--"

"Enough of this. I have no time to waste," Elladan grumbled, tossing his apron on a bench and turning to leave, "Where did you last see her, Legolas?"

Legolas gritted his teeth, not caring for this sort of contempt from Elladan, but before he could even debate on how to answer this, a third tall, dark-haired figure stepped from the healing room silently as a ghost, startling Elladan when his deep voice boomed; "Surely you are not intending to set out this very eve."

"Adar," Elladan spun arround, ready to protest to his father, but Elrond held up a placating hand.

"As much as I disapprove of this to begin with, I would prefer you did not travel alone in the night. As your adar and lord, I insist you wait until first light," Elrond went on, giving Elladan no opening to protest, "And when you do leave, I expect you to exercise your utmost caution. We do not know what this... Myu... is and what Legolas says about her may very well be true. Use your best judgement and return her here only if evident to you that she is no fell being. Is this understood?"

Elladan nodded without a word. Elrond held his son's gaze a moment longer before he stepped back into the healer's chambers and closed the door behind him. Legolas looked at Elladan, then his twin, then Elladan again. "She was on Ornereg path," the wood-elf told him.

A gasp and groan from the injured firion reached their ears as he underwent treatment, likely stitching. Elladan gave Legolas nothing more than a nod, then picked his apron back off the bench, opened the door and followed his adar back into the healer's room.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A/N: Part 5 is completely new, more Engrish stuff. And after this, one more chapter, then I'll be caught up. Thanks for you patience, but it's getting busy at the end of the semester.

PART 1

=============================================

Myu's Musings

Entry No.: 00923885

Subject: GRRROSS!!!

Date: 01-03-0000

Tweet, tweet! Early morning. Birds chirping. What a beautiful, cool, misty morning in the green, summery woods.... EXCEPT FOR THAT HIDEOUS, GAWD-AWFUL, TOE-CURLING REEK!!! Ack! For the love of Taquitos! CPU! Run a BIOS! Switch off my nose! Or I swear this rotting-corpse stench is gonna kill me!

**Running System BIOS**

**Sensory Reception**

** Optical Reception (sight): ENABLED**

** Audio Reception (hearing): ENABLED**

** Tactile Reception (touch): ENABLED**

** Olfactory Reception (smell): DISABLED**

** Gustatory Reception (taste): ENABLED**

**Saving Settings....**

Blech... These things I killed (Orks or whatever), haven't been dead 24 hours and they already stink so bad they make rotten eggs smell like perfume! They're attracting bugs and flies and everything else in between... and I'm wading knee deep in them! And why in the name of oven-roasted taquitos am I here you ask? (here being where Legoras left me after I _smote _all those orks and _saved _that "eek" guy. Meh, how kind of me. Too bad nobody else appreciates it!) Well, the reason I'm here is because, believe it or not, I have an idea! (^-^) It's a pretty stupid idea and it's probably not gonna work, but I _*do* _have _an _idea, so give me credit for that much, 'kay? 

Re: MY IDEA

Remember in my last entry (00923884), when I was talking about using my Ethernet to download language so I could talk to the Amish people here? Well, I'm gonna try that on these Ork things! There are a few of them still alive (I just dismembered them, no big deal). I figure if I can get the port to connect with the critter's spinal cord, the electronic binary frequencies can be conducted through it, which would give me access to their brains. But the problems are: 

A) these things obviously don't have a co-cerebral CPU chip so I don't know how my system is going to react to trying to connect with their brains without one, 

B) I don't know how I'm going to find the language info I need without them having a cerebral database pilot (i.e. a program that takes inventory and locates information stored in a person's memory) and 

C) I have to find one that's laying on it's back because I'm sure as hell not going to turn one of these things over and find a bunch of maggots pouring out of its-- well, you get the picture. 

(_) Blah! 

Okay, here's one. He's still breathing... barely. I just need to make sure he stays alive during the procedure and that his brain stays powered, otherwise I'm SOL. (-_-;) Lessee... If I make an incision here... Oh, I can't do this... Its blood's all-- *shudders* That's just nasty!!!...Ugh, uck, eewie, gag!... Quick! Think of pretty things. Think of an Island paradise! Think of sitting on the beach drinking Corona lite.... drinking phenylalanine beverages... yes... and fluffy bunnies... And making Hina dolls! Making Hina dolls and spending warm, fuzzy time with my chatroom buddies! And sake on new years!... EWW! It just squirted!!!... ugh... just breathe, Myu, breathe... ooh... I think I just ruined my fondness for sake...

Okay, okay! I think I got it. This is it; the spinal cord. Go, go gadget Ethernet port! (That never works. I have the cheap manual-eject model.) The wire stretches two feet out of my wrist (which is still itchy, by the way) so I can keep my distance.. good, good. Now for the connection... Lessee... Hold this open... stick this in there... wiggle it around a bit... Drumroll, please...

**NO SIGNAL**

(_*) Grrr! After all that!... No, wait. Let me try holding the port this way...

**NO SIGNAL**

Or this way?

**NO SIGNAL**

*sigh* Well, it *was* a dumb idea after all. Plus now I gotta locate a natural water reservoir of some sort to clean off my ethernet port. Taquitos, this is so aggravating! Why is it that every plan I ever come up with never works? Sometimes I feel like I'm the poster child for Murphy's law...

**SIGNAL FOUND**

**NO SIGNAL**

Whoa! Hold on there! What was that? I was holding it this way, and then taking it out like this.

**SIGNAL FOUND**

Oh, oops, heh. Cool! I got it!

**NO SIGNAL**

Stop that! Now where did it go again?

**SIGNAL FOUND**

There! I just gotta hold it reeeeally still... Now on to step two: User_Command: Computer, extract language data.

**ERROR! Language Data not found! Cerebral Database Pilot not installed.**

Duh-hoy! Well, then locate the part of the brain with the language stuff.

**ERROR! Unable to locate requested Cerebral Sector! Cerebral Database Pilot not installed.**

Can't I just extract all of the information and sort it out later?

**Negative. Cerebral Model of Host is incompatible with that of the User.**

Argh! I hate to resort to this... F1 Help Menu: Trouble-Shooting.

**Help topic?**

Umm, locating information without a cerebral database pilot thingy.

**Trouble-Shooting: Cerebral Database Pilot (CDP) not installed:**

**- Without a CDP, the information archived in the cerebral databanks of the Host(s) (both organic and synthetic) cannot be readily accessed or modified. However, with User-initiated formatting, block sectors of information may be accessed in read-only format and made available for user download. This, however, requires a user CDP version 12.3 or above. **

Ha, ha, ha! That's real funny there, 'pooter... !!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FRIGGIN' MICRO-PROCESSOR?!! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG IT TAKES TO FORMAT AN ENTIRE BRAIN? 

**Estimated time: 2hrs 57min**

Cute, real cute. What's my CDP version?

**Version 12.5**

Please tell me I don't have to sit here for three hours.

**Time may vary depending on the amount of information archived in the cerebral databank. However, it is not necessary for the User to undergo formatting if the information is available elsewhere on the inter--**

Oh, just shut up and get busy!

**NO SIGNAL**

Dammit! If you weren't in my head I'd clobber you!

**SIGNAL FOUND**

There! Happy now, pookums?

**Commencing Formatting Session. **

**Number of Sectors: 14. **

**Time Remaining: 2hrs 54min. **

**Status: Formatting Occipital lobe... **

**Progress 0%**

Amida? Why me? Why must I be forced to crouch here over a half-dead, rotting body holding my Ethernet port into a bloody, fluid-leaking incision in the back of it's neck? I cannot endure this...Oh, no. Must have entertainment... Computer?

**Yes, Myu?**

Run that Pong screen-saver, will ya?

**Pong Screen-Saver... Test-Mode Initiating...**

*sigh* This is gonna be a long day. Stupid time gateway. Stupid me for jumping into it. I miss VR chatroom and phenylalinine beverages!

~Kaneko Myu signing out~

=============================================

PART 2

=============================================

Elladan rode swiftly down Orn'ereg path, eastward into the first light of day. He should have left hours ago, right after he had rows with Legolas. But by his luck, his adar had wheedled out a promise from him not to leave until daybreak, and that promise he kept. And now, the ruddy sun was just peeking through the foliage. He was drawing nigh on the remains of the battlefield, evident from the stench of orc carrion.

"Myu!" he bellowed loudly into the cool air. "Myu!" He called again, galloping headlong around a bend. She had been out here, on her own for an entire night. She could be leagues from here by now... in fact, if she could run faster than a horse as Legolas insisted, she could be anywhere within a 100 leagues! 

The elf drew in a deep breath to call for her one more time, but froze when he spotted the familiar sallow blonde and purple head peeking up amid the strewn, dismembered pieces of orc. Myu's blue-green eyes were nearly double in size as she watched him approach.

"Myu? What is it?" Coming closer, Elladan began to sincerely wonder what she was doing: She was crouched over a mostly-intact corpse, holding what looked to be a long blue vein or tentacle coming out of her left wrist, into an incision on the back of the corpse's neck. 

The word "befuddled" would be an understatement in Elladan's case. He reined his horse to a halt a few feet away, his brow as furrowed, and watched... just watched. From this vantage, he could hear the faint, slurpy breathing of the orc, which seemed to be near-death, but still alive. "What...?" That was the only word the elf could think of at the moment.

For a long while, Myu ogled him like a child with her hand caught in a cookie jar (bad analogy), then pressed her lips into a thin line and looked back at whatever she was doing with the tenticle-thingy. "Mou gofun shika kakaru tte..." ((It says it'll take just five more minutes...)) she murmured nervously. 

Myu did not hear the elf dismount, so she jumped when she noticed his leather boots suddenly planted beside of her, then immediately looked back at the tentacle and shouted as if in curse, "Ah! Shimatta! Mata shingo wa nai." ((Ah! Dammit! No signal again!)) After digging into the incision with the tentacle more, she looked up at him and said, "Ima wa zenzen ugokenai yo, boku wa. Chotto ato de kaette chodai ne." ((I can't move a muscle right now. Come back a little later, m'kay?))

Elladan crouched down beside her to better analyze the strange situation. "Myu?" he said shakily. "What is that coming out of your wrist?" He asked gesturing to the long, blue line.

"Ah! Mou sanpun san-jubyo shika nai wa ne!" ((Ah! Only three minutes, thirty seconds left)) she chirped excitedly, blushing profusely.

After a long, silence, he tried to reach over and touch the blue cord, only to have her shriek at him and scare him off. "Myu? What is this? What is it you are doing?" he insisted.

Myu looked helplessly at him, wide-eyed. "Mou san-jubyo shika nai!" ((Just thirty more seconds!)) she muttered, chewing on her lower lip and re-focusing on her strange task.

Elladan glanced at the sordid almost-cadaver. "Myu, Please... What ever you are doing, stop. It's very disconcerting and I don't apprecia--" Elladan's voice caught in his throat. His sensitive ears had picked something up and identified it on instant: the twang of an orchish bow... He had only milliseconds to brace himself before the arrow struck him from behind with a juicy thwack. His body went through momentary shock before the pain zinged through his nerves. 

"Aaagh!" Elladan tried to choke back the scream as best he could, but it was still enough to draw Myu's attention. When her head shot up, she saw Elladan clutching his left shoulder. The elf's face was frozen in a transient shock. She started to say something, but stopped cold when she noticed the black-shafted arrow in his shoulder blade, and the bright red rivulet of blood seeping profusely from its base. The thicket behind them stirred. The raucous war-call of orc was more than enough to frighten Elladan's horse off into the woods, taking with him the broadsword tethered to his saddle.

With practiced calm, Elladan watched orchish archers emerge, twenty or more, and saw Myu duck down out of the corner of his eye in vain hopes of hiding from them. Their bows were fitted, and their mouths twisted in gloat as if they took pleasure in watching their injured prey in his last, desperate moments. But Elladan far from desperate, or at least he was too stubborn to admit it. With a glint of loathing in his grey eyes, one as sharp and lethal as the steel edge of a blade, he un-shouldered his bowm ignoring the grievances from his injury, and nocked an arrow with swift, able hands. 

"Hu u-gaun!" ((Cowardly dogs!)) Elladan cursed at them as he yanked back the string with his injured arm, cringed, then let it fly. He took one down, then barely dodged a return-shot. The wound had torn open more from that act and he knew he would not last long against so many enemies. He decided that as soon as he had picked enough of them off, he would grab Myu and run. 

Myu, meanwhile, sat in a quandary, her eyes darting frantically between the Elladan and the line coming from her wrist. 

** Time Remaining: 00min 03 sec **

Elladan loosed another perfect shot to an orc's throat, but not before a volley of three arrows came streaking towards him.

** 00min 02 sec**

The elf whipped sideways, stumbling back as he did. He nearly fell, but the maneuver left him unscathed... by those arrows at least. The arrow in his back had been forced even deeper by that stunt, and the crimson stain spread down over his left flank.

** 00min 01 sec **

Another arrow. A loud crack sounded from where Elladan blocked it with his bow. Dizziness was beginning to tug at him. He knew then that the arrow in his back had been dipped in poison, which was a common below-the-belt practice for orcs.

** 00min 00 sec... Closing Session...**

Myu was bouncing impatiently and whispering to herself, words of encouragement, or so Elladan thought. ((though it was actually 'f*cking computer, f*cking computer...")) He could not fail her. He could not fail himself and his family, who would bear the burden of his loss for centuries.

** Extracting Language Data... WARNING: Do not disconnect until the data has finished downloading! Disconnecting from a databank without CDP may result in User System Failure!**

Myu made a sound like a dying chicken, but this went unheeded as Elladan was too preoccupied with his own problems. In desperation, the elf strung two arrows at once and loosed them just as he twisted from the path of four more shots aimed poorly. One of his arrows struck an orc's thigh, and the other missed its target completely.

** Downloading language.dat... DO NOT DISCONNECT!**

Elladan was tiring, and still the orc's overwhelming numbers were replenishing as steadily as he could pick them off, with more and more bursting from the shady depths of the thicket. He glanced over his shoulder at Myu, and met her eyes, which were wide and helpless like those of a terrified child. Perhaps Legolas had been wrong. Perhaps she had not slain all these orc after all. 

** Downloading language.dat... DO NOT DISCONNECT!**

That was when Elladan's luck finally caved in. His eyes went wide as he felt the harsh, biting tip of an arrow slam into his bow arm, giving his fingers a jolt. They flew open as if on their own whim and dropped the bow clutched within them. Elladan had not realized what happened before more flights or orcish arrows drove him away from his only weapon.

** Downloading language.dat... DO NOT DISCONNECT!**

Myu bit into her bottom lip. It was all she could do to keep her hands from trembling. "Yamerarenai," ((I can't stop it,)) she whispered to herself, quavering fiercely. It was almost done. Just a few more seconds...

** Downloading...**

Just a few more...

==============================

PART 3

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

**Downloading…**

"Goth, at gru, loikr'ishiz mushof." ((Master, there is a woman, hiding in the corpses!))

"Traum-izish, Pizurk!" ((Show me, underling!))

"Gulog-prap," ((Behind the elf)) replied Bolghur, then scuttled back in fear.

Gothul, orc cheiftain and servant of Sauron, grunted in response, a generous reply for the likes of him, and rested a calloused, dirt-crusted hand on the hilt of his scimitar, still tethered at his waste. The other hand drew up in the air, halting his archers. With a low rumble in his throat, he bode them hold. The orc-leader's mottled yellow eyes searched hard grey ones of the elf knelt down in the corpses of his previously fallen warriors. The elf was a rare dark-haired one, not so much as twitching in the face of death, yet paled with poison and blood-loss. He clutched his injured right arm with his left, which was in turn clamped painfully against to his side due to the black arrow lodged in his shoulder. The orc could smell his fear, and his agony, though he refused to let any of it surface on his hard, chiseled features. Elves were a stubborn race... stubborn and foolish. 

"Lulgijak..." the orc muttered at him in insult.

**Downloading…**

A muscle in the elf's jawbone ticked, proving that he had understood what he had just been called. But Gothul paid him no heed. He stepped forward, his char-black skin dappled under the tree shadows, and shining with a light sweat-sheen as the daylight summer heat was beginning to rise to uncomfortable levels. Two of his minions flanked on each side, and ten more drawn arrows behind him still gleamed hatefully at the elf, daring him to move suddenly, and receive death swiftly.

"Eladan?" Gothul heard a female voice whisper behind the dark-haired elf, assuring him that Bolghir had indeed spoken truth. Gothul could hear the orc in question sighing his relief and so paused in his tread and bore his teeth in a crooked scowl. Too bad he didn't get to kill him now, which he had been aching to do since the sniveling maggot was transferred to his command.

**Downloading…**

"Myu, no," The elf hissed and waved his good hand at whomever was behind him, luring back Gothul's attention. Oh, but the blood of an elf, thought the orc-leader, was worth so much more than Bolghir's. Gothul could distinguish some noble-rank to this particular elf, by the opulent nature of his clothes, and the thin, silver circlet twined in his dark-rich hair. The orc-leader came to stance menacingly before him, uncurling his fingers from a tight fist, and then slowly unsheathed a long hunting knife from his belt. The elf did not flinch when the orc drew a long red trail down his jaw with its blade. Gothul broke a grin at his lack of response, looking forward to smashing the pretty face and the challenge of making this stubborn, foolish elf cry out in burning tears of agony. "Mirz mabaj at, golog-tor? Faand izishu-ur?" ((Who have you there, pretty elf? A virgin for us?)) He growled loudly, for all to hear.

This time, the orc had garnered quite an response from the elf; not only did the black speech grate his delicate ears and force a flinch out of him, the words that he had spoken made the elf's jaw clench tightly and his chest begin to heave with short, nervous gasps. He had found the elf's weak spot: This woman, whoever she was. A lover of his perhaps? The thought of honeyed elvish love made Gothul want to vomit right there on the spot.

**Downloading…**

"Alag gru gaakh kulat amirz inrasuzat-ur ik, praasuz-nar uglat." ((That woman may be the one that attacked us before, the one we could not defeat.)) One of the orc flanking him hissed in warning, only to receive the wrathful fist of his leader smashing into the side of his head.

"Nar urdanog-izish, nar thos!" ((You do not command me, sack-less!)), Gothul roared before tearing him to the ground, then turned and flashed his yellow eyes menacingly at the dark-haired Noldor elf. He pressed his knife under the elf's chin, forcing him to look up at him. "Tell me who you got there, lulgijak!" he spat in the common tongue, "Else I torture it out of you!"

"She has no concern in this," the elf muttered darkly, "Leave her. Take me in her stead."

The orc-leader laughed, much amused that some pompous elf still thought he could command him, even with two arrows sticking out of his body and held at knifepoint and arrow-point. "Haughty elf," he bellowed, "Maybe you won't be so haughty if I made you an elf no more!" He slid the knife blade up to the elf's pointed ear, and tested skin's softness there with a small incision to his auricle that made him flinch his head away. "Rrokta!" ((Hold him!)) Gothul barked. 

**Downloading… Complete!**

**Cataloging Language.dat...**

"Akhoth!" ((Yes, master!)) one of his flanking minions complied as he leapt forward and jerk the elf back roughly as he would a disobedient dog. When the elf offered struggle, Gothul reached out with his free hand and twisted the arrow in his back roughly, forcing out an agonized yelp.

**Cataloging Language.dat...**

"Poor elfling!" the Gothul cooed mockingly, twisting the embedded arrow even harder, causing the orcs behind him to burst into raucous laughter.

**User_Query: translate "Sore wo Yamero!" ((Stop that!))**

**search?q :: Sore+wo+Yamero ⊂ :: Search & trans :: JPN & new**

**Translating… Please Wait.**

The elf's face twisted in agony. He struggled with all his might not to let out a cry by biting his lip, so hard a drip of blood slithered down his chin. "Does it hurt?" Gothul taunted, a huge grin on his blackened lips, wrenching the arrow still further. The elf was beginning to lose consciousness fast. ****

**… Suggested Translation: "Nadal ajog."**

"Well, I could make it even better!" And with a roar, Gothul brought his rust-strecked knife down, aiming for the elf's uninjured shoulder, but that is not what it hit. Instead the knife came down into a small, outstretched palm, and did not pierce through for it felt, oddly enough, as though it had struck metal. Gothul's wide incredulous eyes followed from the tiny hand to the most mysterious blue-green eyes he had ever seen. 

"Nadal ajog!" ((Stop that!))

Gothul flinched in such alarm that his grip on the knife faltered, he stumbled back. Gothul barely noticed his minions were back-peddling in terror, crying, "Alag gru! Irz!" ((It's that woman! Run!))

Gothul gasped. A woman! Never had he heard the black-tongue spoken by the likes of a woman! And when he gazed into her exotic blue-green eyes, the effect she had upon him was not to be under-estimated. They reminded him of Saruman's Palantir he had caught a glimpse of once, so impossible, so mysterious. "Mirz lat?" ((Who are you?)), he demanded, mystified. 

"Myu..." the elf murmured incoherently as darkness took him. She stood over him, imposingly depite her size, eyes narrowed, bottom-lip thrust out. Orcs were scattering like dead leaves as she removed the knife from her hand and held it up for all to see as the blood-less incision mended itself within a matter of seconds.

The chieftain ignored the threat the uncanny beauty posed completely, and in fact, stepped withing a few arms length of her, one of his boots treading on the dark spill of the unconscious elf's hair. He paused before her to study her deeply; her flashing eyes, her rose-bud lips, her full, voluptuous body all covered in the blood of his fallen minions. She must certainly know how to fight. Gothul was impressed. Most women he would have just taken on the spot and tore them to pieces. But this one... this one he wanted to take it slow with her. He could torture her later... But what was that long blue line coming out of her wrists? Some sort of tentacle? Perhaps there was more to this woman that she seemed. Perhaps she was a monster just like him. He sighed out a long breath, feeling butterflies in his stomach as she pierced him with her angry, hateful glare. Such fire in this woman! "Ashdautas vrasubatlat," ((I will kill you someday)) he said in customary orcish greeting.

**User_Query: respond to "Ashdautas vrasubatlat."**

**search?q :: Ashdautas+vrasubalat & sub :: Search & resp :: new & JPN **

**Searching... Please Wait.**

The woman looked at him strangely, then her eyes wandered. 

**... Suggested Response: "Nar Udautas."**

After a moment, they snapped back to him, "Nar Udautas." ((Not today.)) she replied with impreccable orcish ettiquette, then gestured for him to move the boot he had on the elf's hair.

The orc-leader glanced at the still form of the elf, and scowled. "Mash-ur nargzabta, luliszub gajumat?" ((What do you want him for, my ugly flower?))

She said nothing, just furrowed her brow and pointed again, more insistently this time.

"Nargzab vrasta nalt?" ((You want to kill him yourself?))

She twisted her lips in contemplation. Her eyes darted here and there, then she folded her arms under her chest and nodded.

"Ah, Ambalhorn-izub," ((Ah, My sweet-buns)) he cooed endearingly, "Nar paash." ((You cannot.))

With a sigh, the woman said nothing more, merely unfurled her arms, and with an exaggerated, terribly-offbalance uppercut, she socked the orc so hard in the stomach he launched nearly five feet off the ground before he landed on his back, clutching his midsection and squeaking about two octaves higher. Flipping her hair arrogantly, she stomped past him, and orcs scattered in terror from her path. A few arrows streaked her way and struck her, but she merely brushed them off as she would a spot of dirt on a velvet tunic. Now that these orcs were certain this was this unconquerable woman-warrior (though with purple hair, how could they mistake her?) were dashing off this way and that into the woods and crying for a retreat, content to leave their leader behind, writhing in the dirt as he clutched his broken ribs.

"Eladan! Hayaku!" ((Eladan! Hurry!)) Myu prompted the elf as she tried to tug him to his feet, but there was no retrieving him from the dark abyss his conscious mind had fallen into. The poison had at conquered him. Although she could tell he was still alive, his pallid face and blue-tinted lips told that he was slipping away fast. "Eladan!" 

"Matubat ik dil kul-gukh," ((He will die before the sun goes down.)) Gothul sputtered, sitting up and gazing longingly at her.

But Myu was not listening, much less even translating what he said. "Mada washi ni naku nararenai de ne." ((Don't die on me yet, you hear?)) she whispered to the unconscious elf encouragingly in her own language, "Mamonaku kaeru kara." ((We'll be home soon.)) Quickly, she hefted Elladan up onto her shoulders, grasping his uninjured shoulder and hooking her other arm around his leg, then, hoping she remembered the direction he had ridden in from, instantly broke into a sprint down that path. 

Gothul was shocked at the speed with which she could run, and very soon she had disappeared into the foliage. "Gimbubatlat urzku ashdautas, vajaz-izub matuurz," ((I will find you again someday, my mortal maiden)) he swore to the forest path that had swallowed her up, "Mabajubatlat. Afar Angathfark!" ((I will have you. I swear by the forge of my soul!))

=============================================

Walking the path of elven dreams, Elladan came across a clearing in a dark forest where the trees were unfamiliar and the wind was thin and seeking something. A moment ago, it was night, but now the morning sun shined full. And he could see in the clearing, his memory most recent. Am I dead, then? He wondered. Myu was there, shielded behind him. He saw a mirror of himself fall before the orcish chieftain and then events blurred. He heard words of the black speech in Myu's voice; "Nadal Ajog!" ((Stop that!)) That did not make sense. How could Myu have spoken black speech? He saw brokenly her wide greenish eyes, the carrion of orcs, and a blue wire, but the images were shadered and made little sense to him, blotted here and there through holes in his memory, burned through by orchish poison. Then dark shadows seeped in again and swallowed up all time and space.

=============================================

PART 4

=============================================

Myu's Mishaps

Entry No.: 00923886

Subject: Camping out

Date: 01-03-0000

A lot of things have happened. First off, I'd like to say; What in the name of the four screaming hells…? Don't tell me that orc thing was hitting on me!! Oh! Oh! Nasty! I'm gonna barf! Why must I always attract the creepy guys? Why can't I get a cute like Elladan or Legolas? Or at least one that bathes regularly. That was just vile! (6_6;)

Anyways, here's what happened so far: In short, Elladan got hurt by that aforementioned barf-bag that was hitting on me (never mind how), and I figured I best take him back to that Rivendell place (I know nil when it comes to mantenence of type twos). Assuming I was heading the right direction (how did people ever live without GPS? How?!) I must have been at least half-way there, when alluva sudden, another one of those point-eared amish people (his name's Amrion, which I found out later) suddenly dropped out of a tree, right into my path like an idiot and hollered at me to stop. I don't think these people are too keen on Newton's laws, especially the second one that says; "an object in motion will remain in motion..." Lessee, I was going about 60 mph, which would be about 27m/s... I weigh 85 pounds, 38 kg. Force equals one-half mass times velocity squared, so 1/2 (38kg) x (27m/s)^2.... That's 13,851 Newtons I hit him with! Well, maybe a little less, since I *did* have a chance to decelerate a little. Cuz I don't think he would have survived if I hit him with 13,851 Newtons.

In result, Amrion and I, and the unfortunate unconscious Elladan whom I was carrying over my shoulder, crashed spectacularly and went flying through the air. And I, being so cat-like and agile (yeah, _right_), managed to twist mid-air so I could cushion Elladan's fall, well, kinda, while Amrion flew backwards and slammed into a tree trunk. Another guy, Taldur, dropped out of a nearby tree and asked Amrion if he was alright. Well, that was mighty considerate. After a dazed moment, Amrion sat up, brushed off his shirt like an Armani suit and said something about me running inhumanly fast, so it was impossible for him to have accurately estimated my velocity, thus it was _*my*_ fault, not his, for *_him* _jumping in *_my* _way! Pfft! As if! 

That's when I noticed something odd: I could understand them!… Yet I could straight-out tell the difference between their flowing speech and the guttural talk of those orcs. So how could I understand what they were saying if I only downloaded one language data file? Well, later this evening, I opened up the new language.dat, and sure enough, there were two or more words matched for every base vocabulary. This means basically that I, "**the User**", did not, as the computer accuses "**Specify multi-lingual partitioning**" so this "Westron" (the language these guys speak) has been mixed in with grunty orc-talk inside a big ol' 50 terabyte data file, and I'm going to have to spend forever and a day separating it out word-by-word if I want to translate my own speech efficiently. (Why me, Amida? Why?) As of now, I'm having to query in translations, and manually adjust them, which might lead to some grammatical errors, but I'll live, I guess. Besides, computers are awful at translations to begin with. We usually use AI's for that.

ANYWAYS, while I was wondering at that, Amrion and Taldur noticed I had Elladan with me (still unconscious). The two new guys ran up, got him off of me and started shaking him and calling his name, and speaking in ANOTHER language that I couldn't translate at *all*. I queried something to the CPU (I forget what it was now), thinking they might understand that other language I translated. And I found out the hard way that they really don't like that language. They kinda looked at me like "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" (these people don't talk much), and one of him drew his bow and aimed it at me, looking mad. And, well this was getting tiresome (not that my day had been peachy to begin with), so I just hollered at them "Kutabare, okama-tachi!" (in retrospect, I'm very fortunate couldn't understand that) and walked off and was done with it.

At least this way, I didn't have to witness the nasty process of pulling out arrows and crap out of Elladan (well, arrows, anywayz). And wow, it must have really hurt him! Elladan, I mean. They had to stick a piece of leather in between his teeth because he was clenching his jaw so hard, even when he was unconscious. I kinda feel sorry for the older models of humans now. Poor guy. In all, the operation took 3 hours and 37 minutes. And while the scouts were injecting antidote, picking out arrow splinters, stitching Elladan up and applying healing ointment, they were talking to each other, sometimes in the language I had downloaded, sometimes in that weird, musical language that I couldn't translate. I listened to them as I inconspicuously diagnosed outdated Earth plant-life (nothing too interesting, I assure you), and that's how I picked up their names; Amrion and Taldur. I also learned that they were scouts, sent by Elladan's daddy, who is, like, the king or something of that Rivendell place. I thought; "Whoa, hold on a minute. Elladan is a PRINCE?!! Money? Power? Rank? The whole nine yards?" I took a second look at Elladan's face, and suddenly realized he suddenly looked very Lego-licious indeed! And speaking of Legolas, I wonder where he is? If he's Elladan's friend, he might be a royal, too! Or not. I could definitely see myself with Elladan. Besides, dark hair is kinda sexy on a guy... tall dark and handsome and all... But it would be kinda hard to tell him apart from his clone... Elrohir was it?

Anywayz, before my train of thought derails completely, here's what happened later… After Amrion and Taldur were finished patching up my poor, unconscious prince Elladan, once rhetorically asked the other what happened to him, and the other said, looking at me, "I will bet it has something to do with this petty witch..." What a buncha superstitious bumpkins! I glared at them, and when they didn't take a hint, I queried; "_I'll have you know that I'm not a witch_!" to my CPU, manually picked out the Westron words and blurted it out. 

They froze like water on liquid Nitrogen and looked at me funny. They were obviously very stunned indeed at my newfound ability to speak Westron. Because they just stood/sat there blinking at me like a pair of barnyard owls. And they hadn't said anything sense. Ha! Told _them _off! They thought I was stupid or somethin' because I could not speak their language (now I know how my dad feels being a foreigner).

In the end, I got no more than a few spiteful glances from Amrion and Taldur for the rest of the night as they went about setting up a camp and talking to each other purposefully in that language I couldn't understand. Elladan has his eyes open right now. They're kinda glazed over, and don't seem to conscious of what their looking at, but they're looking at me! (Hey there, sweetie!) Phew. If I want to win him over, I guess I'd better find out what a Maia is, or at least how to act like one so I can live up to his expectations (slaying orcs asunder and all). But I think I'll save that for another day. Right now, we're all settled down for the night, heading for Rivendell in the morning, and I'm due for a catnap. My mind needs a break from reality cuz three hours of formatting can be a scarring experience.

~Logging out~

Kaneko Myu

By the way, is it just me, or do these point-eared guys glow in the dark?

=============================================

****

**PART 5 (New)**

=============================================

Myu's Mishaps

Entry No.: 00923887

Subject: Cute guy

Date: 01-04-0000

Squeeee!!! This guy is so cute! He's got this big sword and has this very serious look on his face! I wanna pinch his cheek!

Sooooo Cuuuuuuute!!!

Anyways, I just wanted to get that out of my system.

~Signing Out~

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Elvish vocab: Hir nin = My Lord.

____________

Amrion and Taldur stood on the veranda, monitoring the falling night. Fireflies and cicadas were prolific in Elrond's west-wing garden, and it was difficult to be at ease with the edgy buzzing and the sporadic yellow-green flickers. 

"Lord Elrond waits in his office," murmured the aide, who approached two elven scouts leaning on the railing of the veranda outside the said office.

Lord Elrond's office was a work of art in itself, back-dropped with a cornucopia of tomes and scrolls, beset in shelves and arches of a palled, silvery wood, carved in likeness of the forest foliage. The elf lord himself was seated behind his desk, a colossal piece of furniture around which sat four velvet-cushioned chairs, one of which was occupied by the strange purple-haired firiel ((mortal woman)) they found carrying the wounded Elladan, her wrists and ankles in shackles. On either side stood two guards, whose hands gripped the hilts of their swords. She had indeed spoken words of the black speech, but the two scouts had not realized that Elrond deemed her this dangerous.

"Hir nin," Taldur greeted, inclining his head respectfully, "How fares the Lord Elladan?"

Elrond's gray eyes were unreadable. "He is well. He will recover with time," he said simply, then motioned them to their seats. "I would like information regarding her and her behavior when you encountered her on Orn'ereg path," said the elf lord motioning to the firiel.

Amrion glanced at the firiel, who seemed more preoccupied with watching the guard stationed on her left rather than being fretful or enraged over her captivity. He spoke in elvish. "Other than her uncanny fleetness of foot and her strange...." he did not quite know how to place what it was she did when she talked, "... speech.... her behavior is quite typical of any young firiel. As I briefed with your aide, she crashed into me while urgently carrying Lord Elladan, who was injured, and requested of us, in the black speech, 'Don't just stand there, do something'."

Elrond stiffened noticeably, even though he had already briefed of this bit of information. He eyed Myu who had turned around in her seat to better observe the aforementioned guard. The guard was glaring back at her menacingly, knuckles tight on his weapon.

"If I may mention, hir nin," Taldur interrupted, "For whatever reason, I believe the firiel may just have been confused. Her accent made it evident that she was not familiar or natural with the tongue of orcs."

"That may be so," Elrond admitted slowly, "And then what happened?" 

Amrion continued, "We tended to Lord Elladan the best we could, administering antidote, and by my judgment I deemed he was not safe to more until his condition was more stable," Elrond nodded his approval as a healer, and Amrion continued confidently, "We were in the midst of discussing what this strange creature could be and whence she came, for we did not know she had been in Imladris before, and that is when Taldur suggested she might be a witch."

"And you claim she answered to that in words of Common speech?"

"Aye, Hir nin," said Taldur, "But words only. She made a short dialogue, one which made very little sense."

Elrond Perehdil leaned forward, pressing his fingers into a steeple. She had not said a word since she arrived in Rivendell and Elrond was curious to know that she had slipped words of Common Speech. This could very well mean she was a spy, monitoring what they said, all the while convincing them she could not understand a word they spoke. "And what said she?"

Amrion and Taldur regarded each other, then finally one of them spoke, " She said, 'I make that I am not magical errand in you.'"

Elrond stopped, looked between the two, then raised an eyebrow. He was about to ask Amrion to repeat himself when he was interrupted by Myu making kissy noises. The elf-guard who was the target of those noises, had a very subtle expression on his face, an expression which would be the human equivalent of wrinkling one's nose. "Myu! Stop that!" Elrond barked in Common Speech, slamming his hand down on his desk. Myu jumped at the sound, her chains rattling, and turned to look at him. "Turn around and sit in your seat properly!" 

Myu blinked, then sat down with a pout. Elrond felt almost reminiscent of scolding Elrohir all those centuries ago when he was an elfling. But only felt that for a fleeting moment as he realized that, yes, this indeed proved that Myu could understand him. He glanced at Amrion, who nodded, then looked hard at Myu. "Who are you, and whence come you?" he demanded.

**User_Query: translate (new & JPN) "Who are you, and whence come you" **

**Results: "Dare desu ka, doko kara kimasu ka"**

**User_Query: translate (JPN & new ) "Kaneko Myu de, Ezo no shusshin desu."  **

**Suggested Results: ...**

"I am Kaneko Myu and is out of Ezo."

Elrond waited… And that was it. He looked at Amrion and Taldur who both shrugged. Elrond sighed, not knowing what to make of that save for tomfoolery. He tried another approach, touching on a topic she might be more serious about, and more compelled to answer. "Legolas of Mirkwood, Gresham of the Dunedain, as well as my scouts have witnessed your unusual feats, say for example, traveling faster than a horse, and have come to doubt that you are a mere human. In fact, Legolas has suspected you are a spy of the Dark lord Sauron. What evidence do you have against this?" 

**User_Query: translate … ……**

Myu stared blankly at Elrond for a moment, then her eyes narrowed, then went wide. 

**User_Query: translate "Watashi ga hayaku hashireru toka to iu koto dake de wa………" ((Just because I can run fast and all doesn't mean I'm evil, you know. In fact, if you were to accuse me of that, you would be making a grievous logical fallacy called non sequitur, which means "does not follow". That is to say, that the premise of your argument does not, in fact, follow through soundly to your conclusion. Do you understand?))**

**Suggested results: "As for me I can run………"**

With a semi-amused smirk, Elrond raised an elegant eyebrow waiting for her to respond, which took an agonizingly long time, but luckily elves are known for their patience. Finally Myu turned serious and said: "As for me I can run the fact that it is wicked exactly fast, it meaning that everything does not mean, you have known. Actually if it should appeal that me, you were called fault, logical error was made the sequitur, sadly, average "does not continue". Namely, really prerequisite of your argument to your conclusion that it does not follow to health. Do you understand?" 

Elrond's mouth fell open. Taldur and Amrion simply stared at her. A long moment passed uneventfully, and finally Elrond snapped his mouth shut and said, "No… I do not understand…" 

Myu shrugged then turned around, looked at the guard she was staring at earlier, despite his noticeable irritation.

**User_Query: translate "Kare ga kakkoi nante pinchi yaritai kedo yarasenai daro " ((He's so cute I want to pinch him but he probably won't let me))**

**Suggested Results:  "There is he………"**

Myu pointed at the guard and told Elrond, "There is he, therefore as for lovely me the knob you want, him perhaps, but he does not permit me!"

Elrond looked to the scouts for help, hoping they had enough experience with her to clarify what was happening, but unfortunately they could offer more than a mirror of his blank expression.  "What are you doing?" Elrond wanted to know.

Myu pointed again, despite the guard's irritation, "Cutie!"

"No!" The elf lord's temper was hanging by a thread, "Are you mocking us? Why do you speak like that?"

Myu froze blinking, obviously at a loss.

"Do you understand what I am saying?"  Elrond pressed.

Pause. "Yes."

"And you speak the Common Tongue?"

Longer pause. "Yes." 

"Then why are you speaking incoherently?"

**User_Query: translate "Boku wa mechakcha ni hanashiteinai yo! Zenbu kokoro no mochi yo." ((I'm not speaking incoherently. It's all in your head!))**

"I do not speak inconsistently. Your head entirely it is that!"

"Silence!" The elf-lord boomed.

"Naze ittai ni boku ni okotteru?!" ((Why the hell are you mad at me?!)) Myu squeaked with a scandalized look on her face.

And now this odd foreign tongue again? This was too much. Lord Elrond stood, drawing Taldur and Amrion to their feet as well. "Escort her to the dungeons," Elrond ordered as calmly and as even-voiced as possible, and the two guards were only too happy to do so.

"Cutie!" she cooed at the one guard, who was trying to keep her at least an arms length away, then before they managed to get her out the door, she froze as though something dawned on her. "Dungeons!?!"  

"That is correct. You will be kept there until you are ready to speak civilly, and inform us truthfully of who you are and why you are here."

User_Query: translate "Boku no jibun de tsukutta honyaku wa chotto mechakucha daro ne………." ((I suppose my manual translations are a bit rough. I think I can get this formatting done after three or four days, so ask me then.))

Myu pressed a finger to her lips, contemplated, then said "I suppose that it is the bit where my hand translation is rough. As for me I three can make end this formatting four days later, therefore in me then asks of thing is thought."

Elrond shook his head jadedly, so she smiled and said more simply "Three or four days later?"

With a hesitant nod from the elf lord, Myu was off with the guards closing the door behind him. Elrond let his head fall tiredly into his hands. He somehow felt he was going to have as much success finding out who this strange female creature was and whom she served, as he did convincing Isuldur to toss the One Ring into Mount Doom….

Whatever happened to that Ring anyways?

Amrion, still standing in limbo, was hesitant to disturb Elrond, who seemed so distressed he had forgotten he and Taldur were still there. "By your leave, hir nin."

At the slightest gesture from their lord, Amrion and Taldur stepped outside the office door and back onto the veranda and regarded each other. Taldur glanced back at the closed doors "What was _*that*_ all about?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A/N: At last! After several term papers, final exams and ample hair loss due to stressing out at the end-of-the-semester crunch, I have FINALLY gotten this chapter installed! (Expect the same sort of delays at the end of spring semester in May. Sorry it can't be helped). Otherwise, this took a lot of time because I had to retype so much of it. I did most of the work in the PC labs and didn't have any of the final drafts on my computer. There is a lot that has been changed and all of the endings of the chapters had to be rewritten. But still the plot remains roughly the same. 

HOWEVER, the second half of chapter 17 (the last chapter that was up before this got erased) will end differently and have a new plot twist which will decide future events. Therefore, I'll include it in Chapter 5 which will officially be a NEW CHAPTER! Since I am now free of school work, I can promise it before I go back home for Xmas on Monday (12/22/03). From then on, since I'll actually have something new to present, I will be responding to reviewers like I was before. Everyone else, thank you so much for reviewing even though this was all the same thing, and I'm glad so many think I have improved. This was a lot of work getting this back up. From now on I'll make sure I save the final draft to hard disk. 

Oh, yeah, and Happy Holidays.

P.S. I've also been thinking of a beta-reader because I've been finding so many mistakes when I was redoing this. If anyone is interested or knows a good one, I would appreciate the input.

++++++++++++++++++

Part 01

Elvish vocab: Melethril = lover

WARNING: R-rated material ahead

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Five days later...

Elladan stood before the door to his room, placing his hand gently on the handle. Something was not right. He could feel it, yet somehow not quite fathom what it was. Vigilantly, he cracked open the door, just a bit, to peered into the sitting room and... No one was there. It must have been his imagination. He relaxed a little as he stepped in. With an appreciative sniff of the potpourri the maid had dusted over his new linnens, he walked casually up to a bowl of fresh apples set out for him on a stool and took one into his hand. He took a bite, but as he did so, his elf ears picked up the metallic 'shick' of a dagger being drawn beneath the crunching sound. Before he could even think of reacting, the dagger was up at his throat, it's steel edge biting his flesh in warning. 

"Do not move."

Elladan dropped the apple. His grey eyes nearly doubled in size. There could be no mistake in that voice. "Myu! What... Why..." he stammered before he gathered his composure, "Explain yourself at once! What is this all about?!"

"Silence, elf," she hissed ominously, "You are at *my* mercy now!"

"Myu...?" he squeaked as the sharp dagger edge pressed into the supple skin of his neck. This could not be! His ada had been right all along... she *was* a servant of the enemy...

"Turn around. Slowly."

Elladan did as he was told. Even if he was able to wrest the blade from her hand, he could by no means harm her with it, nor would he stand a chance against her brute strength. She would snap his neck like a twig. Elladan met her gaze hatefully as he turned towards her. The ungrateful, back-stabbing wench! He intended to swear it under his breath in elvish, but stopped short as he caught a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"Take your clothes off, handsome," she whispered with a slow, seductive smile.

Elladan released his breath loudly, and chuckled, "Myu. You should not go about these things so dangerously! If you truly wanted me, all you had to do was ask."

"Oh, but I do not want you by your permission, my beautiful elf," she hissed, then paused and raised both eyebrows, the bemused expression melting like honey over her pretty face, "Shall I undress you myself?" she asked naughtily, but did not wait for his approval before she ran the knife down between his collar bones, then cut the first tie of his tunic... then the second. When she had severed the bottom knot, she let the knife fall to the floor with a clang, pushed the garment from his shoulders, throwing it across the room with appraisal of his muscular torso clear in her expression.

"Melethril..." Elladan managed to sigh before his lips clashed with hers in a hungry kiss. He slid his arms around her, grasping her body with desperate need. "I have dreamed of this for many a night, Melethirl," he whispered in her ear when they parted, gasping breath. 

Myu whimpered when his teeth bit down gently on the rounded shell of her ear, running his tongue along it as he nibbled hungrily. "Ai, Elladan... Elladan! Take me now!"

"Gladly," he murmured. With that, he stooped to recapture the knife she had dropped on the floor and exercised the same treatment on the ties running down the front of her bodice, cutting them like she did his. He hardly had time to drop the knife again, before her hands were all over him, gasping and clawing like a wild animal, ravenous with a burning need for him that she could not contain. 

"Shall we go to the bedroom?" He asked playfully.

"No, the wall, it's closer," she replied breathless and began pushing him backwards until his bare back was pressed against the smooth wood panels. She was straining to hold herself up on tiptoes so she could reach his lips for a kiss. In remedy to their height difference, Elladan grasped her by her backside, lifted her up so she met his eye-level, and switched positions, pinning her beneath him against the wall. She wrapped her sultry legs about his waist to help him support her slight weight.

"Do you want it hard or gentle?" Elladan inquired as he gave pause in ravishing her mouth.

"Take me hard, elf," she hissed in delight as he pressed himself more firmly against her. Her hands moved wildly over the taut plains of his body and she bucked her hips against him, desperate to quell the aching need she had for him. "Take me like you have never taken anyone before!"

Elladan grunted in response as their tongues battled for dominance betwixt a bruising kiss. When he could bear it no longer, he rammed her tongue out of his mouth and began a trail of kisses down her neck, occasionally nipping or licking. He supported her on his hips to free his hands and part away the undone bodice, revealing her deep cleavage to his eager eyes. He gave no quarter before he burried his face into it, kissing its softness and licking its depths with famished desire. She was so sensuous... so soft... like the finest silk...no, like suede... no... like bed linnens! Yes, that's exactly how she felt!... Wait a minute... Myu felt like bed linnens? 

Elladan awoke with a start. He was quite disappointed to find himself alone, sprawled out on his empty bed with sheets tangled about him and groping his pillow. Low eastern sunlight was streaming sharply through the window, accompanied by the twittering of morning birds. Elladan groaned at the loss... Well, the dream was nice while it lasted. He turned his head back around and noticed the big wet spot on the pillow where he has been licking it, and began to wonder if he could pass it off to the maid as drool.

"How goes my pervy brother this fine morn'?"

Elladan gave such a start he nearly fell off his disheveled bed. "By all the stars in heaven, Elrohir!" he cried in outrage, struggling to pull himself back up onto the mattress, "What in Eru's name are you doing in my bedroom?! You are NOT to just saunter in here like that!" Elladan fumed, then flipped himself over to lay on his back and panted hoarsely. His shoulder and arm ached.

"I came here on adar's summons," Elrohir reported innocently, "It seems you're due in for another talking-to over your new pet Myu."

"Myu is not a pet!" the older twin thundered.

"You're awful grumpy this time of morning! And I would think after having such a pleasant dream--"

"out. out! Out! OUT! OUT!! OUT!!! OOUUTT!!!!!!!!!" Elladan roared until his twin finally scurried out the door giggling. With an exasperated growl, Elladan rose, holding the sheet about his waist, and walked over to slam the door shut after him... then locked it. Throwing the sheet to the floor, he made his way to the wardrobe, grunting at the pain his left shoulder and right forearm afforded him. The arrow wounds had all but disappeared, save for the fading scars. Elrond had done a fine job as always patching him up, finishing up what Taldur and Amrion had started when he was brought back to Rivendell with Myu. 

Speaking of Myu, Elladan was eager to see what his father had to say about her this time (at least he assumed it was about her). He doubted it would be further. After he had woken up, he was not overly surprised to see that his adar had placed her in confinement (she did, after all, attack the gate guards). He heard that she had spoken words of Westron, Westron that didn't make any sense, but Westron nonetheless, and had been granted the chance to visit her a handful of times. But every time he had come to her cell and attempted to speak with her through the bars, she would just thrust her lip out stubbornly and not utter a word to him. She seemed pleased enough by his visits, but why she would not speak in front of him, he did not know. However, his main concern was her refusal to eat or drink anything while she was locked up. He did not think it was because of the atmosphere, since the dungeons of Imladris were relatively pleasant, but still, she seemed to be making a protest of some sort. Despite his alarm, Elrond had kept her there a week, pointing out that if she still seemed to be in good health, and that "mayhap her kind, whatever she was, just did not require nutrition so oft as elves". Regardless, Elladan finally managed to get her to drink a big glass of water last night on his routine visit, which set his worries to rest somewhat, but he was still concerned with and dreaded hearing what his father had in store for her. 

Generally, Elladan was required to be fastidious about his appearance due to his high status, but this morning he was in a rush. He slipped into a deer-skin tunic and a pair of grey cotton leggings, pulled on a pair of boots, then tied his frizzled hair back into a ponytail. All and all, he looked more like a stable-hand than nobility. Adar would not be pleased. But then again, he wasn't too pleased either about being woken up so early after Elrond had had him running errands until late last night.

Elladan headed out the door with a rueful sigh. That's all he'd been doing these past five days - errands. "Elladan, go check on this..." "Elladan go marshall this patrol..." He knew good and well his father was only trying to keep him away from Myu so he could question her without his intrusion. Ever since he brought her back, Elrond had been keeping her in the hot seat with questions like; "Whence come you?" "What are you?" "Whom do you serve?" and on and on... So far, according to Elladan's only ally in this matter, Lord Erestor, she hasn't been able to provide a comprehensible answer a single question other than "What is your name?" 

After a day or two of this, Elrond finally gave in and assigned one of his scholars, Faelon, to give her grammar lessons, something Elladan wanted to do himself. Elrond, however, was adamant in keeping Myu and him separated, despite his constant protests. Overall, these past five days have been rough on the usually genial ties shared by father and son, and Elrohir had been taking full, brown-nosing advantage of the situation, which put him on Elladan's bad side too. Well, at least Myu has been able to keep herself out of trouble, despite all apprehensions and suspicions about her origins...

"Den mabo!" ((Sieze her!))

Elladan jumped backwards when a blur of someone or something whet zipping across his path, followed by a slower-moving stampede of a half-dozen elven guards. "Ai! What's this!" Elladan called to them, rushing to fall into step beside the one called Amanthon.

Amanthon gave him a side-glance, intent on whatever he was following, "That Myu creature has escaped!"

Elladan bit his lip at the term "Myu-creature", which many of the serving staff had taken to calling her. "And how did that happen?"

Amanthon spoke between pants, trying his best to retain his top speed as they charged down a narrow causeway, past the inner cloisters of Elrond's mansion. "While Barador was guarding her, she started bouncing up and down dancing around in a strange manner, as though she were suddenly anxious or uncomfortable about something. Barador did not know what to make of it and could not fathom what she was trying to tell him, so just closed the outer door and stood guard there. After a few moments, he heard a loud creak of metal coming from within, and when he opened the door, he found she had reached through the door and crushed the lock -- crushed an iron lock! Squeezing it so hard the metal warped inward and caused the internal mechanism to spring apart!"

Elladan nodded as they rounded a corner after the forerunning guards, skidding to stay on his feet. "Somehow I don't doubt that..." 

"...And when Barador opened the door, she came shooting past like an arrow!"

"And you have been chasing her since?"

"Aye, milord. We have nearly every guard available on the chase."

When Elladan and Amanthron came around a second bend they caught just a brief enough glimpse of the escapee to see her skid past an open door, spin around and dash through it. She managed to lock it from inside the very second that Barador charged into it, slamming his entire weight against it in a desperate measure. "Come out of there, witch!" he barked, rattling the locked door. He tried banging it a few times, causing a few curious onlookers, servants, librarians and what-not, to accumulate. Elladan folded his arms and watched, standing at a distance from Amanthon and the rest of the wardens and guards who had been pursuing her. "You cannot stay in there forever," Barador declared valiantly.

"Barador," came Elladan's sleek voice, "How often have you let her out of her cell these past five days?"

Giving the door one last begrudging glare, the fiery red-headed elf turned to Elladan and replied woodenly, "She has been escorted too and from the west wing thrice to hold audience with Lord Elrond and once to receive instruction from Master Faelon."

"There have been no other occasions?"

"None, milord."

Elladan raised an eyebrow with mild incredulity. "None?"

Barador shook his head.

"Do you know what that room is?"

The guard gave an irritated look, "Of course. It is a bath--" His words were interrupted by a tinkling sound coming from behind the door. "--room." His face flushed at least two shades of red. Elladan watched the guard with both eyebrows raised. "Forgive me," the red-haired elf apologized quickly, "I had not realized that she wished to relieve herself because she was not speaking Wes--" Barador's voice trailed off again, "--tron... Forgive me... I have no excuse."

Elladan nodded. As the tinkling continued a good minute or so, onlookers wandered off quietly. The gathered throng of guards dispersed somewhat, clearing their throats and trying their best to divert their attention elsewhere. Amanthon came to stand beside Elladan. "You must have given her a great deal to drink," he commented tentatively, causing Elladan to smirk. When the sound at last tapered off, Barador was back at the door again, though this time rapping at it discreetly with his knuckles. "Are you finished, Myu? I must return you at once into custody."

"Pee!" came the little voice from inside, "Kotoba wa sono toori wa ne-- Pee!" ((That's what the word is-- Pee!))

Barador looked at Elladan, who laughed at the face he made. The prior did not think it so funny. "Out with you now. You have had time enough." He felt somewhat stupid talking to a closed door, especially when he wasn't sure the person inside could understand him. "Myu!"

At last the lock clacked, and the door swung open to reveal a very excited looking face, causing those responsible for detaining her to grow a little apprehensive. She did not come out immediately, so at Barador's signal, the guards began to close in slowly in semi-circle. Elladan stood back to see what she was going to do next.

Myu looked entirely too unfazed. "Mo chito asobo! Mata hashiru yoi dekita?!" ((Lets have some more fun! Are you ready to run again?!)). And with that excited statement, she grasped the door jams and propelled herself slingshot-like into the throng. Apparently, the two or three elves she had crashed into had severely underestimated her momentum and came crashing to the ground in an impressive tackle. Two more guards pounced onto the fray trying to get a hold on Myu, causing the unfortunate elf on the bottom to groan as the breath was knocked out of him. Unfotunately, Myu's outfit, the other-worldly one she had arrived in and had insisted on wearing, was too slicky for them to hold onto and she wormed her way out like a wet fish, giggling amid elvish curses. In desperation, one on the guards she tackled landed firm grip on her belt and with her sudden burst of speed, swore loudly as he was dragged over the ground as if he weighed little more than a squirrel. 

"She's as strong as a horse!" Amanthon exclaimed in disbelief, at the very moment the dragged guard released his grip in favor of not being dragged over the sharp flagstone. He laid on the ground for an agonized moment inspecting the frayed knees of his trousers while the others leapt over him in hot pursuit. Amanthon lost sight of her around the bend, "Where do you suppose she's off to now? That's where we came from." Elladan beside him was too busy chuckling. "Milord?"

Elladan clasped a hand over his mouth and waved off the question. Amanthon considered, shrugged, then went to help up the guard and see if the two of them could still catch up.

*********

PART 02

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"You mean to say, that after breaking out of prison to use a restroom halfway across the premises, Myu, on self-volition, returned to her own jail cell, closed the door behind her and locked herself back in?" Elrond looked incredulously at his son who sat fidgeting before him. He did not like what he was hearing at all.

Elladan nodded briskly, "Aye, but not exactly. She had broken the lock, you see."

"Which means she is left sitting in an unlocked prison chamber?" Elrond asked and simmered with angry, down-slanted brows, "What exactly is being done about this?"

"Nothing, adar. There is nothing the guards *can* do besides monitor her since neither they nor iron bars can hold her it seems," Elladan responded coolly enough, despite his adar's foul mood, "And if I may point out, adar, this proves that she has hitherto been staying in captivity only because she wills it and wishes to comply with us, not because she has no choice. Were she truly here on fell intention, she would have broken out days ago and not behaved five days thusly, suffering the stay in our dungeons where she is deprived of her privacy and so mistreated that she may not even go to relieve herself when she requests."

Lord Elrond grunted at this and laced his fingers before him on the huge, cluttered desk in his study, pressing his lips into a thin line. Elladan braced himself for a lengthy admonishment, but it never came. "Very well, Elladan. What would you have me do with her?"

At that terribly unexpected response, Elladan blinked several times, waiting for a punch-line. "Well... I... I..."

"Well?" Elrond asked, drumming his fingers on his desk, "I have more important matters to attend, so speak quickly."

Elladan looked up at Erestor, who stood to the right of Elrond's huge oak chair. The advisor gave him a wink. Elladan looked back at his ada and stuttered. "Umm... I suppose you could... you could..."

"Transfer Myu to your care? Is that what you wish?"

Elladan nodded, his eyes wide and hopeful.

"Very well, she is yours," Elrond said, dipping his quill and scribbling something on a leaflet, "Golradir," he summoned. When a tall raven-haired attendant entered through the open door of his study, Elrond handed him the leaflet and told him, "Take this edict to Barador and see to it that Kaneko Myu is released into Elladan's custody. Escort her to Elladan's study. He will be waiting for her there." Golradir nodded, then promptly left on his errand.

Elladan was thunderstruck, but not to such a degree that he forgot his manners. "Thank you, adar," Elladan said, rising to bow.

"You are to make sure that this child stays out of trouble. And if anything does go wrong, you are to assume full responsibility, do I make myself clear?" Elrond uttered sternly.

"Yes, adar. Thank you, adar," answered Elladan, bowing again.

"And whenever you are summoned to my presence, I expect you to pay better mind to how you present yourself. I've seen stable hands who dress more tastefully," The elf lord added sharply, before gathering papers for the next item of business, "Your appearance is utterly appalling."

"Yes, adar. Thank you adar," Elladan repeated, bowed, then left the room, followed closely by Erestor, and the evil eye of Elrond trying to decide whether that last "thank you adar" was meant to mock him.

When he and Erestor were out in the hall, Elladan forthright burst out the question; "What in Eru's name was *that* all about?! In all my years, adar has *never* relented so easily to *anything* I request!"

Erestor chuckled, waving a rolled-up piece of paper in his hand that he was to take to his study. "It seems the so-called Myu-creature has driven your adar to his wit's end. He no longer wishes to deal with her."

"Indeed?" Elladan exclaimed with interest, "By her speech no doubt." 

"And overall refusal to cooperate and act, as Lord Elrond puts it, 'civil'," Erestor added, "I suppose you will not have much time to spend with her until next week."

Elladan grimaced at the sudden recollection; he had to captain local patrols this week. He, his brother and Glorfindel's eldest son, Anendel, usually took turns in the task. He wondered if he might be able to switch with one of them so he could have more time to at least get her better situated. Well, at least Legolas was not here for her to fawn over.

"I will see you later this evening for dinner," said Erestor as they reached an intersection in the corridor, then bode his farewell and turned off toward the offices of the advisors.

Indeed. Elladan sighed ruefully, then headed to his quarters to prepare a bath for himself. Usually house-servants did such things so that he would have more time to attend to his duties, but his adar exempted them from the chore if one of his sons overslept, seeing it as a lesson on responsibility. He selected his garments as the water in the iron tub warmed, then added a few bath salts, tied up his hair and got in. He did not take too long, and was soon neatly dressed and on his way to his office. The office was relatively uncluttered and unused, as he had far less administrative responsibilities as his adar and Erestor, which allowed him to sit down at his desk comfortably and wait. He took a silver dagger out of the top drawer and began to peel the skins off of an apple that he brought here from his quarters, wondering all along why he was having deja vu.

Suddenly there was a commotion outside his door; hurried footsteps and a distant voice demanding that the person 'come back here'. "Shitsurei itashimasu!" ((Excuse me!)) Smiling at the familiar voice, Elladan got up to open the door, but Myu discovered the mechanism in the door handle before he could do so, and stepped inside, slamming the door behind her as the pursuing guard was just about to stick his head in. "Taihen na sewa ni narimasu ne. Doozo yoroshiku." ((Thank you for your taking care of me.... or literally "It has come to your difficult attendance. Please treat me favorably."))

Elladan smiled crookedly, then gestured to a chair at his desk, but Myu was too excited to be having any of that. "itsuka-kan zutto sawattari shiteru na no! Dokoka de asobi ni dekakeyo! Ichiba nado, doko demo," ((I've been sitting for five days straight! Lets go have fun somewhere! The marketplace, wherever.)) she jabbered excitedly, tugging the velvet sleeve of his tunic.

Salvaging the sleeve from her grasp, he made a face and gestured once more for her to sit. "You will not try to speak to me in the common tongue? It does no good to speak to me like that. You know I do not understand you." He placed a hand on her left shoulder blade to guide her, but she didn't let him.

Myu shook her head, proving that she could understand and that she was just doing this on purpose. "Mo hanashite minai. Unzari shita." ((I don't try to speak it anymore. I'm tired of it.))

At a loss, Elladan examined her with keen gray eyes and she smiled back charmingly, jerking her head for them to go. She was just how he remembered seeing her that day by the fishing pond, soaking wet. Her golden-tan facial features were odd, yet uniquely beautiful in his eyes. She wore that same blue one-piece outfit with the unusual symbols on the back. The material was snug, and pleasant to the touch. He could feel that her frame beneath it was frail… or deceptively frail anyways. From what he heard, she was more than strong enough to match him in battle. Both he and his twin had been celibate for most of their lives because their battling orc with the Dunedain had kept them away from home regularly, and in danger. The thought had just then struck him: how ideal it would be to have a mate who could come with him on these quests! He slid his hand down to the small of her back. She was rather cold, but felt good... indescribably good.

"Nani omotteru kana?" ((I wonder what you're thinking)) Myu reached a hand up tentatively to examine the pointed tip of his ear, sending shivers down his spine.

Just then, Elladan thought of something. "If you refuse to speak in the common tongue, then perhaps I shall learn your language." Myu looked suddenly excited, and he took that as a yes. "Very well... how do you say 'good day'."

"Konnichi wa."

"Konnichi wa?" Elladan attempted with a rickety accent then tried to coax her to sit down at his desk again, but she was terribly stubborn. His thumb stroked along her spine, causing her to stiffen. She was obviously not used to these sort of attention. "And 'how are you'? How would I say that?''

Myu's gaze wandered shyly as he leaned a little closer to her. "'Genki?'"

"Genki," he whispered then leaned in closer, bringing his mouth close enough to her to breathe in her cool, sweet-smelling breath. He became bolder. "How do you say 'you are beautiful'."

Her eyes went wide, revealing she was quite flattered. "Suteki dayo!" she said louder then she intended, then clapped a hand over her mouth.

Elladan peeled the hand off, pleased with her reaction to his advances. "How do you say 'to kiss'."

"Kutchizuke-suru." Scarcely had she said that when Elladan feathered a soft, delicate kiss on her lips, watching her meticulously with his piercing grey eyes. 

"What other word should I learn?"

She was grinning now. "Motto tsuyoku! Motto hayaku! iku iku!" ((Harder! Faster! I'm c*ming!))

"Mm?" He leaned in for another kiss, this time his tongue slipped out a little and laved her top lip.

"'To lick'? What is your word for that?"

"Nameru."

The elf pulled back a little and grinned wickedly, revealing a pair of incisors pointed slightly more than those of a human. "And 'to bite'?"

Myu gulped. "Kamu."

Cradling her face between slender hands, he tilted her chin up and clamped his teeth on an extremely sensitive point on her neck, causing her to yelp. He began to suckle the skin there, and soon, it felt indescribably good. Myu had not even known such a spot on her neck existed. He must really have experience in this sort of thing, she thought with mild resentment. "Na! Oshiete ageru tango wa mo kurikaeshite itteminai!" ((Hey! You're not repeating the words I'm trying to teach you!)) 

Ignoring her, his hands explored her waist and stomach freely. "'To caress'?"

Myu eased back a few steps to lean against the closed door of Elladan's office and the elf lifted her up so he could reach her better. He was pleased how much this was turning out like the dream he had this morning. Meanwhile, Myu completely forgot she was supposed to be teaching him. She noticed the point of his ear close to her lips, and, remembering Legolas ministrations to her that night after dinner, she turned her face sideways to bite down on it.

"Ah!" the elf jerked back, dropping her to her feet, looking at her first with astonishment, then discomfiture.

"What?" Her first word in Westron.

"Are you aware of what such a gesture means among my people?"

Myu shook her head. 

"It means you want to...." He leaned in close and whispered the rest in her ear. 

Myu's eyes nearly doubled in size. "Otto..." ((Oops...))

"Now how do you say--"

Elladan was interrupted by a knock on the door they were against. "Confound it!"

"Shimatta!"

"That is enough," Elladan grumbled, shooing her to one side. When he opened the door, she was behind it and could not tell who was there, but she could tell from the elf's expression that he was thoroughly surprised by who ever it was. 

((May I help you, Legolas?)) Elladan asked stiffly in elvish after a long silence. 

Legolas was also belated in responding, blinking a few times before he answered indignantly; ((What manner is that to greet a life-long friend?))

((You said you were going to deliver a dispatch to Lord Celeborn. How is it that you traveled to and from Lorien in less than five days?)) Elladan countered with a question of his own. ((Forgive me, but I was not expecting that you would return for another week at least.))

((On the way, I had the good fortune to encounter Dunedain messengers who were also corresponding between our kingdoms concerning orc activity.)) The blond tried to peek his head through the door, but Elladan stood adamantly in his way. ((Will you not invite me in?)) 

Elladan glanced eagerly at Myu, then glared at Legolas as though a sharp look would make him vanish into thin air. ((I apologize, but I am terribly busy. If you have no errand here, then I regret I have no time to entertain--))

"I do have errand. Elrond asked me to deliver a message to you before I retire to my suite," Legolas said, switching to common speech. Elladan bristled imperceptibly. Besides being interrupted, Legolas was the only outsider who referred to Elrond without a title, something he found unbearably conceited. Legolas went on. "He wishes to notify you that Anendel has returned from patrols and he has some urgent information. He would like you to see to it. Now. "

While Elladan was suppressing the urge to lay a solid back-hand swing to Legolas' jaw, Myu was quite sure she recognized Legolas' voice and peeked around the door to affirm that. "Ah! Lego-kun! Nanka koto atta?" ((Ah! Legsie! What's up?))

A look of sheer horror crossed Legolas' face as he saw, standing suddenly at Elladan's side, the dreadful creature that had socked the gate guards harder than a charging bull, ran faster than a horse at full gallop, single-handedly engaged 30 orchish warriors, diced them into mince meat then walked away without a scratch. He made a sound like a dying chicken.

Myu thought that was funny. "Eh? Nandakke?" ((Huh? What was that?)). She looked at him a moment, then reached out to try to pinch his cheek. "Kakkoi nante!"((You're so cute!))

"Keep back!" With a jack-rabbit start, Legolas back-peddled rapidly until he was out of her reach, spun on heel, then took off down the hall mad dash, leaving a very befuddled Myu in his dust. He glanced a few times over his shoulder, and seeing she was not pursuing him, lessened his pace to a more dignified one with a very mean, very disgusted look on his face every time he looked back at her.

Folding her arms over her chest, Myu looked up at Elladan who still seemed rankled. "Henjin." When he didn't respond, she said it again in a shout. "Henjin!"

"Henjin?" he asked, snapping out of his thoughts, "What is that?"

Myu considered. "Weird person," she said finally.

Elladan chuckled then mussed her hair. She tried to stretch up to kiss him, but he slipped out of her reach. "Forgive me, miluiril ((lovely one))" He apologized to the crest-fallen face, "But I must see to something." Myu tried to follow him, but he stayed her, putting both hands on her shoulders. "I will return shortly, I promise."

Myu could only stand in the doorway of his office, watching him retreat down the same corridor Legolas had taken, her lip thrust out in a pout. But the very moment he was out of sight, she pumped her fist in the air and exclaimed excitedly, "Suteki!!! Atashi wa hime ni naru nanda!" ((Awesome! I'm gonna be a princess!))

******************

PART 03

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Elvish vocab

Mae govannen - "Well met" (y'all probably know that one)

firiel - mortal woman (mortal man = firion)

elleth - female elf 

miluiril - "lovely one"

********

Legolas took a deep, satisfied breath of late-summer breeze, looking like a puppy having its belly scratched. The average-day crowd in the main square of Rivendell flowed about him pleasantly with the silent gracefulness that only fellow elves could muster. Here and there, the heavy thud of the booted feet of human merchants sounded in his keen ears, along with the twitter of late morning birds, the rustle of crisp summer leaves overhead and clatter of cartwheels over flagstone. A young she-elf with a pretty round face, sparkling wide eyes and dark-brown hair passed an arm's length from him, chatting with a friend, and accidentally brushed her basket against his bum. 

"Ai! Your pardon--" 

At that very instant the she-elf turned to meet the handsome sky-blue eyes of Mirkwood's Prince. While he smiled pleasantly at the attractive maiden before him, the attractive maiden gasped in alarm and quickly stooped into a formal bow. "I beg your pardon, my Lord! I had not expected to see the youngest son of Thranduil before my very eyes!"

In fluid response, Legolas scooped her left hand into his and planted a soft kiss on its back, gazing up at her smolderingly. "Nay. The pleasure is mine, Bein hiril nin." ((My lovely lady))

Her friend had to steady her as her knees buckled in near swoon. This dark-haired she-elf was certainly not bad-looking, Legolas thought to himself. Perhaps he would have some plans for tonight afterall, he thought. "Might I ask your name?"

"It is Lothiel, my Lord," she murmured, a faint pink blush blooming over her cheeks.

"Lothiel. A lovely name indeed," he was pouring it on thick, "Will you be attending tonight's banqu--"

"Mae Govannen, Legolas Thranduilion!"

Legolas' expression dropped to a blatant scowl, recognizing the grating male voice easily as human, with a very crude Sindarin accent at best. He turned, still wearing the scowl, and found Gresham approaching him, a hand over his heart in formal greeting. Estel was but a few paces behind, all smiles. "I... hope I haven't interrupted anything," Gresham said hesitantly, with an intonation that Legolas did not find sincere at all.

"Dartho nin." ((Wait for me,)) Legolas told the elf-maid with a wink, then led Gresham a few paces off to the side. "What is it you want?" Legolas asked, not bothering to hide the exasperation in his voice.

Gresham inclined his head. "I simply wish to offer my gratitude for bringing me to Rivendell last week, after I had been set upon by orcs."

"Gratitude accepted, is there aught more you wish to say?"

"Aye, there is." Gresham went on unfazed, "I wonder if you know where I may find the little purple-haired maiden, to whom I owe my life."

"Myu?" Legolas spat with as much disgust as he could muster, "She is in custody of course, in Elladan's last I saw her."

Gresham smiled knowledgeably. "Nay, not so. She was indeed in custody when you were away, but was released just this morning."

Legolas stiffened. He searched the man's expression for a skeptical moment. "Has Elrond gone mad? How could he release that witch?"

"A witch?" Gresham repeated, barking a laugh, "A witch, nay. I have seen witches before and she is not one of them." 

Gresham is a Dunedan. Of course he would figure he knows better, even better than an elf several centuries older than he. With arms folded tightly across his chest, Legolas scrutinized the man with disdain. "Then what do you propose she is?"

Gresham shrugged. "Nothing has been confirmed yet. But regardless, Myu is truly a sweet and adorable creature."

"And very beautiful creatuer," Estel added, which earned him a whap from his mentor.

"--and she is not at all magical... or evil," he added.

"She is dangerous," Legolas reasserted.

"No more than any man or elf who carries a sword, as we can all do each other harm should we have the will to do so," Gresham stated in rather loose wisdom, the sort which no one really understands, but since it sounds cool accept it anyways. He placed a hand on Estel's shoulder to steer him away, "Before the sun crests, I shall be taking Estel out on two week survival trek and I should like to find Myu before we leave Rivendell. So... Velui a lalaith veren nalu govaded vin. Navaer." ((Sweet water and joyous laughter until next we meet. Farewell.))

"Harthon gerithag lend vaer," ((Have a good trip)) Legolas replied methodically and watched the man and the youth disappear into the crowd. 

Myu had been released.

Legolas' stomach fell hard. She could be anywhere, stalking him at this very moment. He had to get back to the house of Elrond and have a long talk with Rivendell's Lord. He took the first few steps then stopped, sensing an elf hurrying up from behind.

"Your highness?" It was the dark-haired she-elf he had been wooing earlier. What was her name? "You wished for me to wait for you?"

"Forgive me, miluiril. I must be elsewhere at this time," Legolas apologized bluntly then took off again. Myu was out there. He could just feel it.

_Music from "Jaws"_.... **[Opening Media] **_Duuh-duhn .... _

Legolas glanced nervously about the crowd, making his way to the edge of the square. He paused by a small flower stand that was set up on an elevated arcade where he could overlook the midday crowd, and rubbed his eyes roughly. 

**Target Locked**

_Duh-duhn .... _

He would have felt much safer if he were allowed to carry weapons in the market square. He heard human footsteps coming from somewhere to his right, though all who were closest to him appeared to be elves. Myu was very short, he reminded himself, so she would be difficult to spot in a crowd of elves.

**Distance 20 yards and closing...**

_Duh-duhn Duh-duhn Duh-duhn...._

He could see no sign of who was making those footfalls, but they were still heading his way steadily. This was ridiculous, he chided himself inwardly. They more than likely just belonged to some random human peddler. Legolas made ready to hurry onward. Those footsteps were dangerously close now...

**Distance 10 yards and closing... **

_Duh-duhn Duh-duhn Duh-duhnDuhduhnDuhduhn ...._

"Some flowers for your sweet-heart, your highness?"

"Ack!" Legolas startled nearly a foot off the ground, twisted around and landed in a well-honed combat stance... only to come face to face with the flower-stand attendant offering him a bouquet of roses, her face paled at his anything-but-subtle reaction.

"Forgive me if I am mistaken," she apologized slowly with bewilderment thick in her voice, "But I saw you speaking with that dark-haired elleth over there, and I assumed the two of you were together."

"Nay, nay!" Legolas stuttered quickly, feeling thoroughly embarrassed, but still tense. "We just... we just were discussing... ah... matters."

The attendant gave him a queer look. "Then some flowers for the firiel ((mortal woman)) here waiting on you?" she asked hopefully.

"Firiel?" Legolas' face was set with confusion, but turned sheet-white when he about-faced and saw whom the attendant was referring to, standing primly and patiently but a few feet behind him. "Myu?" Legolas squeaked, a few octaves too high for his liking.

"Myu?" Myu screeched in exaggerated imitation.

"Myu?" Legolas said again in his normal voice, correcting himself.

"Myu?" Myu echoed in a strained baratone. Her bizarre blue-green eyes danced playfully.

With the image of the mangled orc corpses she had slain marching through his memory, Legolas required every ounce of self-control to keep himself from fleeing as he had done before. It was different when he was in front of just Elladan, his life-long friend who had already seen him in various degrees of indecencies. But in this instance, there were many people, commoners, watching him, and running away right on the spot would be downright unseemly for a member of Mirkwood nobility (why was it he was the only one who saw how dangerous this creature was? Why?!). He would have to make his escape in a much more dignified manner.

"Excuse me," Legolas attempted, edging around her and trying not to touch her.

"Excuse me," Myu mimicked, sidestepping to block his path.

Avoiding her gaze, Legolas tried stepping around from the other side, and when she moved to block him there, he realized he wasn't going to get out of this so easily. Just then, with impeccable timing, salvation came in the form of Gresham of the Dunedan, who came trotting up shouting, "Ah! There you are Myu! I have been searching for you all morning!"

Myu turned around, her head cocked in a bird-like fashion, and regarded the man curiously. Before she turned back, however, Legolas was off, racing half-walk-half-run to the House of Elrond. She whipped back around just in time to witness him disappear off the arcade, but Gresham's hand had caught hers before she could follow.

"I just wanted to offer you my gratitude, milady," Gresham's uttered in enthusiastic deluge, "And my apologies for my initial apprehension and lack of courtesy--" 

"And my compliments on how beautiful you are," Estel added, trotting up.

"-- I now recognize that you are indeed a great warrior, and as any warrior who has saved the life of another, you have my thanks. I realize that perhaps you do not understand my speech, however, I still feel the need to express--"

At that point, Myu reached out a hand, clapped it over the running mouth and told Gresham and Estel both: "Being that "I am on a midst of very important problem most people of here being, happiness you think very well me concerning me, without being possible, to stand my here, to speak to you it is, but understand. ? Something which "is said to that, as for me tonight and meets afterwards, is my Otaru in us"

As Myu turned and sprinted off after the elf-prince, Gresham, face frozen in mid-speech, and Estel, with his mouth gaping slightly, turned slowly to look at one another, blinking collectively. Then after several seconds, Gresham's expression went blank and at last uttered the one word that was doomed to come; "What?"

******

"Wait up, Legolas! I need your help!"

Legolas was half way to the house of Elrond, currently passing through a small, more or less secluded grove of apple trees as a shortcut, when he heard that a ways off. For a brief moment, he could not fathom who it was. Then it hit him; Myu was speaking Westron. Unfortunately, he had no time to ponder this as the rustling of her footsteps was approaching rapidly. "Elbereth! She is as noisy as an orc!" he cursed to himself, then leapt nimbly up the nearest apple tree. Unfortunately, she had been closing in much faster than he could have anticipated (which goes to explain how she outran him that first time he tried to leave Rivendell). He yelped as a strong, yet petite hand caught his boot ankle and attempted to yank him back down.

"Unhand me, you brutish wench!" cried Legolas, hanging on to the overhead branches for all he was worth. Fortunately, her slight weight made it impossible to get the leverage she needed to yank him down.

"Lulgijak!" she returned the insult and continued yanking.

At that one, single word of black speech, Legolas ears tweaked and alarms went off in his head. "Have you any idea what you just said?!" he exclaimed, knowing good and well this was but one of many instances to support his claim that Myu was _EVIL_.

"No," she giggled, then leaned back and tried pulling from a different angle.

"Unhand me!" Legolas demanded again.

"You enjoy it!"

There was a hesitation. "I most certainly do not!" the elf spat in disgust then began to thrash more fervently. When that just made her squeal in playful attempt to subdue him, he stopped and began searching for a more below-the-belt means to get her off him. He noticed a ripe red apple dangling on the branch he was on, about a yard to his left, which might suffice as a projectile. It would have been much easier to get over there if she hadn't been yanking so wildly, he noted as he inched little by little over to where the apple was. But right as he came within reach, the woman jumped up and caught him about the waist, so that they were now both dangling four feet off the ground. 

"Are you ticklish?"

Legolas' eyes went wide. He could do nothing to stop her from reaching up and going straight for his underarms. 

"Tickle-tickle-tickle!"

Legolas made an indecent grunt and, seeing no other option, let go. He landed gracefully as always, but the woman on his back couldn't seem to handle the short drop and toppled onto her backside, taking him with her. "Confound you!" the elf barked as he tried to pull himself up off her, but she kept her arms firmly about his waist, so that she was on her back, and he on top of her.

"Go on! Scream like a girl again! Eek! Eek!" she teased, still tickling and sending him into a frenzy, "Make that chicken noise again!"

"Cease this foolishness and unhand me!" Legolas demanded, squirming and twisting frantically against her grasp until he finally succeeded in reaching a hand behind him and pushing against her chest.

"Bad elf! Bad!"

Legolas didn't realize until she said that, that he had his hand planted on something soft. He felt heat rush to his face and withdrew it immediately, falling face down on top of her without the support. He was laying on what he had been fervently trying to avoid, but did not bother getting up, as the struggle had more or less worn him out by now. She was very pleasant to lay on, he was forced to admit, trying to put his finger on something particularly odd about her. Then it dawned on him. He lifted his head a little, and sniffed at the small body beneath him. That was odd. He considered that may just be the odd material she wore, and stretched up to reach her neck and inhaled the scent there. Interesting indeed, his expression seemed to say. It was not what he _did _smell, it was what he _didn't _smell. This woman had no scent at all! He felt her eyes on him and lifted his head to give her a contemptuous look. He had not been this close to her save when he found her in the lake, and without face being wet, he noticed something about her complexion. It was like glass, literally. So smooth it did not seem at all real. And her eyes; her irises were pure in hue, making them as clear and reflective as polished crystal. There was definitely something wrong here. Legolas shuddered, "What are you?"

By her smile, he could guess preemptively that she wasn't going to give him a satisfying answer. "Sankei Ningen." ((Type-three human))

He felt her fingers stroking his back soothingly, and felt warmth spreading through him as he lay on top of her, and for a moment forgot himself and how dangerous she was. He made to get up, and she moved with him, clasping his left wrist just in case. "You want to talk? I will tell you everything about who I am."

Legolas rose to his full height and looked down at her thoughtfully with hooded eyes, then nodded almost imperceptibly. 

"But first you have to do me a favor, cutie," she said mildly, thumping him on the shoulder.

"Do not address me by such a pet-name," the elf told the woman in a frigid voice, "I have no interest in you..."

"Which works out great, because I have no interest in you either," she laughed heartily, "And I haven't ever since I worked out you were a pusillanimous prig," Legolas stiffened, his eyes widened in disbelief. Remembering she was asking a favor, Myu cleared her throat and muttered, "No offense, but someone really needs to tell you that. Anyways, what I need you to do, is to fill me in on stuff."

"Stuff...?" Legolas repeated slowly, "I do not suppose it would be in your intellectual capacity to specify further."

"No, not really," Myu said unperturbed.

With a long, drawn-out sigh, the elf tried again to fathom what she was requesting, "What specifically do you want me to do?" 

"Teach me about stuff!" said Myu in a whiney voice, bouncing up and down. "They keep quizzing me on stuff. What's a dwarf? Who is Cirdan? Where is Harad?" 

"Who is this 'they' you are referring to?"

"Elrond!"

"Elrond is more than one person?"

"...I don't know."

The theory was slowly dawning on Legolas, that perhaps Myu wasn't actually evil, just insane. "I have no gist at all of what you are talking about," he told her with disdain.

"I don't know about stuff. Since I don't know about stuff, they're suspicious."

"Elrond is supicious?"

"Everyone!"

"Suspicious about what?"

"What I am. Where I'm from. I want to know about Elladan. What is Elladan?" 

A slight notion of what she meant was beginning to form. The more he thought about it, the more disconcerted he felt. Could it be that she was from such a far away land that she had no knowledge at all about Arda? "You are not from Middle Earth?" he asked with uncertainty.

Myu shook her head excitedly. "Yes! The reason I haven't been speaking in Westron is because I can't answer all these weird questions they've been asking me. Everyone is starting to think I'm weird. They're afraid of me."

"You wish for me to teach you about Middle Earth?" Legolas concluded, then referred back to the previous statement; "Why do you want to know about Elladan?"

"I'm absolutely in love with him!" Myu cooed, clasping her hands before her, "He's so adorable and so nice to me! He gave me a kiss!"

Legolas couldn't help but shudder. He began to wonder fervently what exactly happened during his absence. Regardless, he was quite certain that infatuation between an elf and a mortal would not last long, and from knowledge of Elladan's prior relationships, he very much doubted his sincerity. He realized Myu was waiting for a response, then nodded.

"So you'll do it?" Myu asked, tugging his arm enthusiastically.

"Now?" Legolas considered. He *was* curious about what a 'Sankei-whatever' was, he had to admit. If she was indeed part of a new species, than it might be to Mirkwood's knowledge and benefit that he learn about them. The elf considered, then nodded again reluctantly. "We will go to the east library."

"That's not too far is it? I am going to meet Elladan tonight."

The elf pressed his lips to a thin line and held out his hand. "It is in Elladan's house. Come."

*****

PART 04

A/N: About the Japanese words in Myu's speech... Let me point out again that the English dialogue in this fic _is used to represent Westron_, and is NOT in fact English. According to the book "The Magical Worlds of the Lord of the Rings" by David Colbert, LotR supposedly took place around 4000 BC, which is way before even Old English developed. Since Westron is an archaic language, it's lacking in any and all "modern" vocabulary. Therefore, Myu cannot properly translate words like 'uchujin' (space alien) or "keitai denwa" (cellphone), because these are things that were not discovered, thought of, or invented yet. 

**********

Japanese Vocab - (plurals are generally not used in Japanese, so "Uchujin", for instance, could mean either "alien" or "aliens")

Uchujin = space alien

Wakusei = planet

Kukan Tsuro = stargate (lit. space gateway instead of time gateway, Jikan Tsuro)

Daigaku = university

Ginga-mure = galaxy cluster

*********

"You're all uchujin!" 

Legolas sat straight-backed at the library desk, holding a page of _"The Valaquenta: Account of the Valar and Maiar According to the Lore of the Eldar" _mid-turn and looking irritated. In the chair to his left sat an abruptly excited Myu, who had in the last 15 minutes thrown more words from her language at him than he could count, and had not, to any fathomable degree, explained a one, save "tsureai" in reference to her sudden relationship with Elladan (a revelation which still had him disgusted somewhat). "And what is that?" Legolas asked resignedly, sounding anything but interested.

As though off in her own little world, Myu sat frozen in astonishment, her mouth gaping like a dead fish. Suddenly she gasped and pointed at Legolas. "Taquitos! Sono tori wayo! 'Elf'-tte iu ikimono wa uchujin nan desho! Gengo ya shinwa ni mo oboe ga nai wake wa nee! Koko wa chikyu de mo nai! Kitto watashi ga gaikai ni iru koto ni chigainai" ((Taquitos!!! That's it! "Elves" are aliens! That's why I don't recognize your language and myths and all! This isn't even earth! I must be on another world!))

Legolas sighed and turned to the next page, and waited patiently for her concentration to return to the book where it was supposed to be. All in all, she had been having a little trouble accepting that the Ainur had sung the world into existence, as told in the _Ainulindale_. She instead insisted that (in rough summary) the heavens were in fact the result of a giant explosion at the beginning of time and the earth and sun solidified out of a giant swirling vortex of dust. Legolas did not much care for her people's mythologies. They were very strange.

"Is this near Amnatr?"

Legolas glanced up. "What?"

Myu looked frantic. "Is this near the Amnatr star system? There is a wakusei there that was reported to have non-progressive life forms that were nearly identical to humans. I just thought that might be where I am."

A small scowl crossed Legolas lips. "Are all your people this odd, Myu?"

"No, no! This is important!" Myu cried, stressing the word 'important', "I think I've been displaced in space instead of time! Maybe it was a Kukan Tsuro and I just misread the placard! If that's the case, I can go home!"

The mention of "home" brought several questions to mind. Legolas figured it was high time she started fulfilling her part of the bargain of explaining things, since trying to teach her the Valaquenta so far had been about as fruitful as trying to build a sandcastle underwater. "Where is your home, Myu?"

"Ezo-shu. Northern Shin-Yamato Teikoku," she said without a word of elaboration. Legolas clapped his hand to his forehead, feeling the beginnings of a migraine. "I don't know where it is in relationship to here," Myu went on, "But I think it's not in this world."

Legolas did a double take. He hadn't heard of 'Ezoshu northern' whatever, as expected, but what really sparked his interest was "_not in this world"_. Admittedly, he had never considered that anything existed outside Arda, because Arda to him had always been so simple; the earth, heaven, barren lands to the south and east, ice and wind to the north, and to the west, past Valinor, vast ocean that reached to the ends of the earth. To think there was something past those ends was truly disconcerting, yet at the same time fascinating. "How have you come hither if you do not know your course home?" the wood elf asked, with a sudden crease of concentration in his smooth brow. He suddenly thought of how she had fallen from the sky, then it dawned on him, "You were brought here by teleportation magic?"

"_Magic_?!" Myu rolled her eyes and laughed in an attempt to sound mocking, "I don't think you know what you're talking about. But if you do, it depends on whether your '_teleportation magic'_ are a form with photic conversion or dimensional distortion, because I came here by the latter."

The wood-elf was at this point exasperated. He glanced out the window, noting the low angle of the sun, and then turned and slammed the book shut. "Either explain yourself in rational terms, or I think I shall take my leave now."

"Whaddya mean?" Myu protested, thrusting her hands out innocently, "You should be able to understand me! These words are from _your _language afterall--"

"Then you are not making sense with those words!" he cut her off.

With a sour look on her face, Myu propped her elbows up on the table and steepled her fingers together. "Photic conversion is where the physical substance of the object or entity is converted to and relayed as light energy--" she stopped short when she noticed Legolas still gathering up books and attempted to simplify the explanation further; "Photic conversion is where you disappear and travel really fast, and dimensional distortion is where you cut a hole in the-- uh-- I mean-- It's where you make a doorway that opens up somewhere else."

Legolas stopped what he was doing and made a small smile as if to say, 'now we're getting somewhere,' "Hence you are come hither by a teleportal," he restated in triumph. At her slight nod, he prodded further. "And what of this portal? How did you come to enter it? Are you come on some errand?"

"I'm here by accident."

There was a long pause. "What do you mean when you say 'accident'?"

Myu's face suddenly went white, evidentially not wanting to reveal what the accident was. She lingered in silent debate over whether the elf would accept her having killed somebody as an accident. 

"You agreed to tell me the truth," the elf reminded shrewdly, reading her all too easily.

Myu bit her lip, and began letting little bits of information slip, "I was in trouble..."

"Why?" he prompted sharply when it was clear she was not going to go into detail. A thousand possibilities were running through his mind; perhaps she was a tainted Maiar from Morgoth's realm of exile where he was sent for his destroying the Two Trees... This theory he felt not altogether unlikely, given that he had not yet witnessed the extent of her 'abilities'.

Myu thought it over, then her face lit up. She said she would not lie, but never agreed that she wouldn't forego certain details. "I broke a... a machine?" Myu just noticed the word in her vocabulary, "You have machines here?"

Legolas nodded, his expression unreadable, "Aye, Eldar have built machines in the past, as have Istari... and dwarves even to some crude extent," he ended with a hint of disgust.

"Well, yes, anyhoo," Myu babbled rapidly, looking pleased with herself for not lying, "I broke a _very very very very expensive _machine... _commmPLETEly_ by accident-- I tripped and fell on it-- and I was scared my dad would be _really really really really _mad at me, so I used a teleportal to escape..."

What sort of machine could be so important to warrant her to plunge herself into an unknown world from which she might never return? Perhaps the fate of the world depended on it? "It was your father's machine?" asked a suddenly intrigued Legolas.

"No, it was Charayar-sensei's doodad," she said, fidgeting with a purple strand of hair, "He's from Indo."

"Why would your father have been angry?"

"He's Charayar's boss, and the machine belonged to the Daigaku, where he supervised. Plus he's the one responsible for punishing me, not Charayar..."

"Who is your father?"

"He's an uchujin like you," she answered loosely.

"Your father is an elf?" Legolas misinterpreted. Skepticism was blatant in his voice.

"Nope. He's of another sort," she said, then defined the word before he could ask, "An uchujin is a name we have for people from another world outside of Yamato. Like you. You're from Arda. My dad is from Saltharis. But your world, if I remember right, is a lot closer than Saltharis, which is all the way on the other side of the local Ginga-mure, which is-- the uh--" she paused, then laughed at her own loss of words, "It's just really far. Usually people can't travel such a distance, or teleport even, but my dad's people, the Ashura, are very intelligent and they've figured out how to build powerful machines that can cross those long distances," Myu sighed, then continued rambling emptily, almost as if forgetting he was listening, "My mother was human, though, and a lot of people thought bad of for marrying an uchujin. They weren't together very long though. My father takes care of me now. I haven't seen my mother in over 80 years."

Both Myu and Legolas fell into a comfortable silence. The elf almost felt numb at the information, choppy though it was. He had never heard of an "ashura", and as far as he knew, teleportation was an advanced magic that only the Valar and upper level Maiar could conjure. He figured, just then, that the Ashura must be a powerful race indeed, if that is where Myu inherited her colossal strength and alacrity. At the same time, it seemed doubtless to him that her mother must have been responsible for the inane human side of her. 

"Oh!" Myu's sudden exclamation floated him up from his thoughts. "It's almost sunset! I have to get ready to meet Elladan!" Myu bounced up from her chair and told Legolas with all the un-buffered excitement of a puppy, "I'm going to try to find that green dress I wore that first night to dinner here! He really seemed to like that!" And without waiting for a response she dashed off, calling over her shoulder; "We'll meet here same time tomorrow, alright?"

The wood-elf watched as the strange, and suddenly very intriguing firiel ran headlong through the main entrance of the small east-wing library, where her form dissolved instantly into an orange-gold shaft of sunlight. Then Legolas was left alone, silent with his thoughts. But silent only a moment before he suddenly recalled, simultaneously, what she said about not having seen her mother and normal human longevity. He shot bolt-upright, crying out, "She said 'EIGHTY YEARS'?!"

*********** 

Angst was etched clearly into Elladan's face as he read the dispatch. "Seven," he whispered in a quavering voice, rereading the hastily scrawled names of the elf-warriors who would never more be seen in Rivendell alive. His hands were shaking. He felt the eyes his younger twin looking on grimly from over his shoulder.

Anendel Glorfindelion, the returning captain of this patrol that suffered the attack, stood before him with downcast eyes. "Forgive me, Elladan, Elrohir. I have no words to express my regret for the seven lives lost..." The blonde elf-lord's face was gray with grief and self-loathing at what he percieved as a failure on his part as a responsible captian to those lost.

Elladan nodded absently from where he sat at a desk in an alcove segmented off from the main armory, his face flushed with hatred toward the orcs who had ambushed them. His hand intuitively wandered down and gripped his sword hilt. Yet the rage felt empty. There was only so much a sword could do. It could grant him nothing as of now. Those dead were dead. "We will have that orc found. He will pay dearly," he heard his brother growl menacingly from behind him, "WIth your permission, brother, I will accompany you this patrol as well. We will hunt him together. I will not have you face the responsibility of revenge alone."

Indeed, with Anendel's week-long shift over, the responsibility to avenge the families of those killed now fell to Elladan, as well as defending Rivendell proper and those smaller suburbs nestled about it. He would also have to inform Elrond of the disaster, even though Rivendell's defense was not his charge. Elrond, the gentile "Lore-Master" of Imladris was more suited to healing, office work and politics to begin with, but his sons, on the other hand, turned out to be well rounded in both combat and leadership, which made them ideal for this job."Are you sure you wish to go with me?" Elladan asked mildly, hoping that his brother might not change his mind if he said that. He was not looking forward to undertaking this task alone.

Elrohir nodded, and with a cold, somber look in his grey eyes, turned to Anendel and requested that he brief them again on what happened.

"Deep in the night, we came across an orc... most unusually, a lone orc..." Anendel began, "We had no idea what to make of it, but when we made to shoot it from the depths of the foliage, the orc somehow sensed our presence. With a shout, it stood and, owed to my command, my archers held themselves in check to hear the foul creature out. In a trembling voice, this unusual orc petitioned to us in common speech," from here, Anendel gathered his words carefully, "The orc identified itself as Gothul, masterless and renegade to its own kind. Without preamble, it asked us if we had seen a mortal woman with violet streaks in her hair, whom it had been desperately seeking without rest for nigh on five days."

"Myu..." Elrohir bristled.

"Peace, Elrohir," Elladan told his brother in a firm tone, "She has nothing to do with this orc. It's fascination with her is at its own discretion."

"As you know, I had been away when you came across this maiden," Anendel continued, "So I knew not of whom the orc was speaking, yet her connection to this orc lead me to believe finding her may have been of importance, something which could only be done if the orc were alive to lead us to her. I intended to send a messenger at first light, seeing how it was growing dark. As night fell, we bound the orc securely and made camp. Yet at the cresting of the moon, our camp was, without warning, plunged into ambush, catching us completely off guard. I had no doubt in my mind that it was a trap into which this orc, Gothul, had lead us," Anendel's voice trailed off before he added bowing, "Forgive my error in trusting an orc. I deserve not your mercy."

Elladan brushed away his apology, then turned to look at his twin. Indeed Myu had nothing to do with this, he thought, yet was never the less the cause of it. When an orc, like Gothul, wanted something, they would spill any amount of blood to get it. The last thing Rivendell needed was an all-out siege. If worst came to worst, he could always hand the mortal woman over, but definitely would not unless the lives of elves were in danger. With nothing more to say to Anendel, he dismissed him, bidding good-night as Elrohir took his leave as well.

It had already fallen dark outside, and one by one a servant shuffled about the armory lighting candles. Elladan barely noticed as he was caught up in an eddy of anger and remorse for what had happened. He did not recall getting up to go, but rather found himself following the moon-lit path to his chambers. He needed to lie down, though he doubted he would sleep. He would make his patrol preparations just before sunrise. He cracked open the door to his room, and when he turned to close it gently, a voice within took him by surprise.

"Sake wa ikaga, anata?" ((How about some wine, dear?))

Elladan turned his attention slowly to the figure standing at the door, clad in a familiar blue-green dress and swinging a bottle of champagne seductively at her hip. Myu. One look into her smiling face told him he could never give her up to orcs. Seeing the small smile she brought to his lips, she set the wine down on a nearby table and, sparkling with all her usual cheer, plopped herself down happily down on the edge of the bed, patting a place beside her.

"You are very insistent," Elladan observed, and instead went to the bureau to light a series of candles. When he turned back, he found that the warm flicker of the candle light cast a twinkle in her crystal eyes, yet the smile had vanished from her lips. Just then, most unexpectedly she stood and reached behind her. He could not tell what she was doing at first, due to the dim light, but when the neckline of her bodice began to sag, his eyes went wide. 

The elf could only watch speechless, as she held his gaze steadily. Further, further the neckline slid down, every inch of skin revealed seeming to him so flawless, so perfect, though the fair complexion of elvenfolk was absent from her skin. The ties took time to undo, and time stood frozen as Elladan watched her, his eyes no longer meeting hers, but now gazing steadily at what she was intent on baring to him. Did she truly think him so wonderful as to take such a gamble, he wondered? 

The elf drew in a sharp breath when the last tie was undone and with a quick tug, the bodice was pulled down to her hips. And thusly she stood before him, exposed and awaiting his approval. She watched his expression carefully, her face flushed, yet expression determined. 

Elladan felt a liquid heat flood his veins as his body responded to the sight of her body. He could never have, never in a hundred years, imagined something such a pleasure to his eyes. She was not willowy and graceful like a she-elf, no, something completely different. The length of her abdomen was firm, long and slender, like the belly of a serpent, yet her breasts above it were full and heavy, more so than any other female he had seen, and perked at the contact of the night air. In all, her figure spoke not to him of tactful elven beauty, but of desire, burning and raw. How could he feel anything else but that? He wanted her, needed her, so bad he could barely stand to resist her. With eyes lust-dark and not word of warning, he strode forth, closing the distance between them...

*******

PART 05

Elvish vocab

bein dulinn = lovely nightingale

melethron = lover (masculine)

ellon = a male elf 

elleth = a female elf 

*******

"Elladan?" Myu squeeked out as Elladan siezed the bodice of her dress about her waist, tugged it back up and held it so she could put her arms through the sleeves. She did so with hesitance... no, more like utter outrage. Her stomach was twisting in knots as it gradually sunk in that Elladan was rejecting her. 'How could you do such a thing after what I just did?!' her face seemed to plead him. 

Elladan was tired, bogged down with responsibilities. Even though his body was enthusiastic enough about her offer, it would not suit to waste time pleasuring oneself when seven of Rivendells warriors were dead, and their families suffering. Yet how could he explain that to Myu? He was not even completely sure how well she understood him to begin with. He told her this as straight-forward as he could: "Tell one of the servants in the halls that you are my guest and request they find you a room to sleep in. I cannot this night. I apologize sincerely."

Through her eyes, he could see her heart breaking. Choking back a sob, Myu darted straight for the door, hastily flinging it open and slamming it shut behind her, only to charge back in a moment later in after-thought to retrieve the wine bottle and repeat the process.

In the aftermath, Elladan felt nothing but a profound regret weighing in his chest like a cold, heavy stone. Poor innocent little thing. So insecure and full of faults, yet at the same time so active and brimming with life. He hated to hurt her, and even more to turn down what he had yearned for so long. If only Anendel's report had come to him another night... With those thoughts burning in his mind, Elladan snuffed out the candles in his chambers and returned to the armory, intending to spend all night there with paperwork and double-checking supplies.

************

Myu's Musings

Entry No.: 00923888

Subject: 

Date: 01-08-0000

Hello there. tis Kaneko myu of the happy cerebral database pilot HOMO tha taquitos forkspoon! stink myplastic firkspoon? firkspoon. Firkspono! IM SOOO DRUNK!!!! Idrunk thw whole bottle!!! WHOOOOOOOO!!!!! Itwuz okay. elladan didnt drink it with me so I hadto drink the hole thign! Im sooooooooooooooooooooooo drunk ifeel hot. Why didnt elladan wanto be with mewhyy didnt Ealaldan want to be with m,e? he didnt tell me i lookd beutiful like he did before.maybe no more magick .maybe I should make myselgf look beaUTIFUL FOR HIMTHERE I GO AGAIN WITH CRAzy talk. crazycrazycrazy. maybe im CRAZY grrl with stupid head for cute uchujin. I think im gonna leave him foiks the foodeating and i caught a mushroom thar has the wonderful smeel! taquitos forkspoon of the uchujin I LOVE YOU 'POOTERS myu

********

It was a lovely evening, though the smell of a coming rain was leaden in the air. Taking the quiet path through the cedars hung with elven lanterns, Legolas continued his stroll humming happily to himself and enjoying the pretty elleth hooked onto his elbow. It was that dark-haired maid he met in the market square earlier today before he had been so rudely interrupted -- what was her name again? It seemed he forgot it for second time. Oh well. With a weary sigh, Legolas looked down into her lovely char-grey eyes, shining like polished obsidian in the lamplight, and continued humming. She looked truly pleased to be with him despite his earlier treatment of her, which he had to admit was somewhat thoughtless of him. She felt his gaze upon him and glanced up at him shyly.

"I heard orc activity is increasing in Lorien," Legolas told her. 

The elleth laughed and thought it a rather odd topic to raise on such a romantic stroll, but when she saw Legolas was looking at her funny, she cleared her throat and cast her gaze to her feet. This elf, after all, was of very high status. After a moment's silence between them, the elleth noticed that the path he lead her on was drawing her further and further from Rivendell proper. "Whither are you taking me, hir nin?" 

Without a word of warning, the Mirkwood prince stopped walking and pulled the elleth to him, pressing his lips to hers in his most smoldering kiss. "Someplace quiet and secluded, if you do not object," he told her after he broke the kiss, leaving her breathless, "I believe there is a lover's-meeting flet not far down this path. He cast a glance toward where he was referring.

For a moment, the elleth was too overwhelmed to speak-- this elf was a prince! A prince who desired a night with *_her*_!-- but after the initial shock wore off, she nodded shyly at first, then eagerly.

"Have you ever been with a wood elf before?" Legolas asked idly, feeling excitement coursing through his veins.

The elleth had gotten giggly, and a modest blush kissed her fair cheeks. "Nay, hir nin. I know only that they are primarily flaxen of mane, tall, blue-eyed and speak Sindarin with a stark, yet lovely accent," she said, making a blase effort to be as flattering as possible.

Legolas chuckled at her behavior heartily, even though he was well used to seeing ladies, that he, quote 'dealt with', acting like this. "If it is your wish, bein, I shall tell you--"

"Can you smoke this? *hic*"

Both elves on the path gave a start at the slurred Westron speech that came loudly from their immediate left.

With the elleth seeking protection at his back in 'damsel-in-destress' mode, Legolas squinted into the shadows and found there a stone bench. But there was no one on the bench. There was someone under the bench though. "Myu! What are you doing down there!" the wood-elf hissed. The prospect of spending a lovely night with this elleth was evaporating like water in a smelting furnace. "I have no time to deal with your foolishness. Return at once to the house of Elrond!"

"Can you smoke this?" she repeated, holding up a pale-blue mushroom for him to observe... or at least trying to hold it up. She didn't seem too conscious of which direction was up right now.

Legolas dropped his irritation a moment to consider her inquiry. Whoever heard of smoking a mushroom? Did she mean burn it as fuel? Why would she want do that? "I do not know the answer to that question." Legolas replied honestly, then arrived at the following conclusion before he even finished the sentence; "You reek of liquor. You are drunk." He felt the nails of the elleth digging into his arm. "There is no excuse for such disgraceful behavior in an elven city. Go back to Elrond. Now."

"We should make haste, melethron," the elleth whispered to him in elvish, "I do not like this creature. She is dangerous, and I do not trust her when she is in such a state of unpredictability." Legolas had told her how dangerous she was and what she did earlier tonight. At least his convictions were being accepted by somebody.

Myu hiccuped, contemplated her mushroom a little longer, then, with much spontaneity, stood up... actually, not really stood up, but managed to find her way to her feet after a bout of trial and error which wasn't really showing any progress until she recalled that she was lying under a bench. She stumbled forward and caught herself on Legolas, causing the elleth to shriek and retreat back several paces. "I LOVE YOU, MAN-- *hic*" she hollered and held her arms out for a big bear hug.

Legolas wrinkled his nose and stepped out of reach. "I am not a man."

With little coherence in her actions, Myu hiccuped, sniffed the mushroom, licked her pinky, then looked at the elleth. The elleth looked back at her with bitter abhorrence boiling in her eyes. "So who's this little treat?" Myu asked casually, jerking her head toward the elleth, "You planning to-- *hic*-- give her a good banging?" 

"Myu!" Though in utter outrage, Legolas had to suppress the urge to strike Myu right then; one because striking females was just unseemly (at least in front of someone you were trying to impress), and two because he didn't want to think what would happen if she decided to strike him back. Instead, Legolas gave her a warning look as sharp as deadly as a elven blade.

Myu noticed the expression. "What? There's no shame in makin' cheap entertainment out of it!" she slurred, palm-open in honesty, "Hoes like this are worth a copper a dozen."

Enough was enough. In the end it was the elleth who verbally confronted her. "How dare you speak thusly of me, you disgusting, purple-haired wh*re!"

Myu switched demeanor on instant to a red-faced raging drunk as she snorted at the female elf and said; "What's wrong with purple hair, rat-ears? And excuse me if I-- *hic* --if I don't take insults concerning sexual-indulgence from a shallow-minded chit who just seconds ago agreed to spread for a guy who doesn't even know her name."

"How dare you!" the elleth's voice was cracking with disbelief.

"Ask him and see for yourself."

Legolas had to suppress another urge; to question Myu how she figured out he didn't know the elleth's name, knowing that would only prove Myu right. Instead, he continued glaring at her as though he was too angry to even hear the accusation.

"Avoiding the question," Myu diagnosed accurately, "You can tell he has no respect for you," she told the elleth, "Otherwise he would have defended you instead of making you do it yourself."

The elleth opened her mouth, then snapped it shut, then repeated the process. She scoured her most vile imagination for some nasty retort but came up blank, knowing good and well what this drunken firiel said was so true it hurt. What was she thinking in giving herself freely to this arrogant ellon who cared nothing for her? To spare what honor she had left, the elleth turned her heated glare on Legolas, "I shall leave you two since you seem so to get along so well." And with a flip of her long, dark mane, she whirled about and marched back off toward Rivendell proper.

Legolas watched her go with an expression of sheer disbelief on his face, then turned to Myu and said in a voice dangerous and low. "Are you satisfied now? Will your stalking of me never cease?" 

"Will your ****in' paranoid ego ever deflate to the point where I can weather through a hangover without you assuming I was lying in wait for your scrawny, supercilious butt to come mincing my way?" Myu slurred, raising her volume to the point drunks usually raise it to when they're upset over something, "Hey! I'll admit that gem of a face of yours had me fooled at first, Leg'as, but I assure you, I ain't gave a second 'bout you since that day I saw you run off piss-pants just because I had a little blood on me. You're a spineless, over-indulgent, breast-fed nance, and unlike you, I learn from my faults instead of ignoring them.... *hic*"

With his jaw dropping in disbelief, Legolas' eyes flashed murder. But before he could even think of counter measures against such a brutal verbal assault, Myu giggled, bounced the mushroom off his head, and announced "I'm gonna be spontaneous now!" then ran off.

*****************

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5   
  
A/N: Thanks to the two who have offered to beta. I will send each a half of the next chapter to avoid giving either too much work (as I will be trying to make the next chapter longer than this one). It will be really helpful. Thanks. And again, sorry the last update took so long. I was in a lot of trouble at the end of this semester with four advanced Japanese classes and was pressed to get so much read and translated in so little time. Again, it couldn't be helped. I didn't have a chance to post this chapter before I left, but now that I'm home, I have internet access IN MY ROOM, which is something I've sorely missed, so updating shouldn't be a problem. Thanks to those who have stuck with me even after all this happened, especially kaio, Morima, CSI, Joy4eva and Naomi who reviewed last chapter.   
  
****  
  
A lean figure slipped through the dark with phantom-like silence, then paused, crouching among the underbrush in absolute stillness, melding flawlessly into the forest as if he was just another rock or bush. Several seconds had elapsed when the figure finally crept forward.   
  
Myu recognized the blonde hair and lifted her head a little from where she had been laying since she tripped over a surfaced tree-root and fell face first on a big pile of prickly nuts. She was a bit too out of it to notice that it was suposed to hurt, but it was better than the ordeal of trying to stand up.  
  
The figure stalked a few slow, uncertain steps away from her, then paused, then veered to the left a few paces. For a brief moment, Myu's woozy alcohol-oriented mind considered calling out a big "Wassaaaaap!" to the blond figure, but when Myu realized that he had completely overlooked her, she held her breath and kept quiet, thinking she'd just let him pass so she could get some sleep. Unfortunately, just then a hiccup surfaced.  
  
Veteran hunter-instincts homed-in on instant and the figure spun in a whirl of blonde hair and stepped toward the sorce. "Myu." It was the voice of Legolas-- the very angry voice of Legolas, more specifically.  
  
Myu tried to remember for a moment what she was doing and why Legolas was here, but failed miserably. "Where'd you come from?" she asked finally.  
  
With a look of utter contempt on his face, Legolas asked back. "Exactly how much did you drink?"  
  
Myu couldn't remember. "Well, there was the one bottle I brought Elladan... then another bottle left out in the kitchen, then one in the pantry..."  
  
"Bottle..." In his lengthy pause, Legolas began to sincerely wonder if it was such a good idea coming after her in this state. "Bottle... not glass?"  
  
"No, the bottles were all glass," Myu said in misunderstanding, yet still affirming the elf's question.  
  
After another long pause, much contemplation, then a contemptous shake of the head, Legolas said; "Stealing wine, expecially that from the royal household is a punishable crime..."  
  
Myu hiccuped.  
  
"And then verbal offense. I cannot allow you to roam the streets after such violent behavior. Come." Given her currently muddled state, Legolas figured that the best way to get her back to Elrond was to just demand it with authority. It wasn't that he really was interested in Rivendell's safety with her amuk, it was just the perfect opertunity to get her into truouble and see some sort of retrobution for the nasty words she threw at him a while back. "Come now, get up. I am going to escort you back."  
  
"Am I going home?" asked Myu in confusion, with a somehow sad tone backdropping her slurred voice, "I want to go home. I don't like it here...." She added in a quieter tone: "No body likes me here either."  
  
Legolas pretended he did not hear it. And waited until she gathered the resolve to get up off the ground. He did not understand how she could tolerate lying on a bunch of chestnut burrs. With languid, yet obviously irritated motions she tried to gather herself up on her haunches, but found that her foot was caught under a tree root, and twisted quite painfully. She indeed must have been thoroughly intoxicated not to have felt that. In natural response, Legolas winced, then decided to shove aside his ill fellings for the moment and step forward to help, warning; "Your ankle is caught. Do not move, or you are going to break--" With a violent jerk, Myu yanked the caught limb free with a sickening pop of joints being dislocated. And Legolas witnessed as she in almost casual reaction, popped the ankle back into place and wiggled it as though she suffered barely a minor cramp. "--it..."  
  
The elf stood, without even a notion of how he could react to that besides continuing to stand there, or leaving the scene entirely. He continued standing, and eventually, Myu found her footing and stood with some sucess. She came to him and looked into his wide, blue eyes. "Did I ever tell you how cute you were?"  
  
Legolas blinked, and his pink lips parted ever so slightly to speak, but he said nothing. His blank expression fell to a glare and he turned from her, toward the direction of Elrond's house. "If you can manage to walk without... twisting your ankle again," he said, trying to put it lightly to avoid unpleasant flashback, "Then let us go now. I have not all night to waste on you."  
  
He began to walk, hoping that she would follow his example, and she did. But it was not to follow him, it was to keep him from leaving. A small, yet surprisingly-firm hand nabbed him by the wrist, and brought him to a halt.  
  
"Where do you think you're going, beautiful?"  
  
In utter exasperation, the elf turned to meet the silly, impish grin that was being flashed at him. "Wherever I please," he answered tartly, "And you shall return to the house of Elrond. No more foolery." He yanked his wrist back, but the hand did not some off. Somehow feeling a little less certain, Legolas regarded her firmly and tried to yank it again but the hand that gripped him was like steel. He tried again, refusing to loose confidence. "Unhand me. I grow tired of your jests."  
  
"Who's jesting?" Myu drew a little closer, then asked; "You wanted to have fun tonight, didn't you?"  
  
"Aye, but I am affraid you have ruined my chance for 'fun'," the elf spat, trying again to yank himself free.   
  
"I think I want to have fun to," Myu crowed drowsily, ignoring his bitterness.  
  
"I generally do not strike women, but if you do not release me, I may be tempted to do so," Legolas bit back with a shudder of disgust. He was beginning to regret he ever came after her. Who would have thought she would be asking him to bed her? She was brazen beyond what he could tolerate.  
  
"You want this, don't you? That's why you came after me..." she slurred.  
  
"That is absolutely absurd!" the elf exclaimed almost an octave higher, "This is the last time I am going to tell you to release me!"  
  
Myu finally released his wrist, but in exchange, slid around behind him and grasped him about the belt. The elf's struggle to keep his footing was a bitter one. In the end, she was just too strong, and a moment later, he was on his back upon the leafy ground, followed closely by Myu pouncing on top of him. She pinned his arms over his head with a shin as she slid his belt off his waist and used it to bind them together and tie them to a tree root like the one she tripped over. No amount of threashing or yanking could free him, and when she finally managed to secure the bonds, a sudden fear gripped his stomach. With a grip like steel, she oved down his body and held his violently squirming body imoble. She was just to strong to fight. She was stronger than him! And she could do whatever she wanted to him! That is when the realization crashed over him; he was about to be molested by a woman!  
  
A million thoughts flooded Legolas' mind as Myu pressed the full length of her body against him and looked into his face longingly, though sheer horror was written all over it. What was he supposed to do? Call for help? No, that was absolutely out of the question. What would Elronds people think to find him there begging for them to save him from a drunken firiel. The indignity of this was already more than he could bear, much less so knowing that other people had seen him like this. He had no weapons with him, end even if he did, they would do him no good with his hands bound. Perhaps he could reason with her. "Myu! This is absurd. Behave yourself and untie me this instant!"  
  
Still stroking his hair, she shifted so that her thigh rubbed against a very sensitive spot, causing the elf to yelp and begin squirming anew. "You're making me so hot, beautiful."  
  
No, he was definitely going to be more than moleted. "This is insane!" the elf cried, but was muffled by a forceful kiss. She tasted heavily of wine (that part Legolas liked actually).  
  
"Just relax..." She panted, undoing the toggles of his tunic. Then with a sly grin on her face, she finished her task under the eyes of one very alarmed elf, and reached for the waist band of his breeches. Legolas choked out a surprised wince as she undid the tie and stuck her hand down--  
  
CENSORED: The following segment has been censored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Elves (PETE) in violation of code 147 which prohibits Mary Sues from engaging in acts of questionable ethics with members of the Eldar. PETE would like to remind you that Elves are considered an endangered species in Middle Earth and assures you that no Elves have been harmed during the typing of this fic. Have a nice day.  
  
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Erestor, half asleep at his desk, stirred at a soft knock on the door. "Come in," he croaked.  
  
"You sound like a human," Elladan observed playfully, "You have been up all night then?"  
  
Erestor nodded, then turned half closed eyes to the paperwork, which Elladan had no doubt that they must concern petitions to or from the families of the five warriors who were slain just yesternight. "The sun is just now beginning to rise and I must make haste to set out on patrol. Last night's rain would have washed away any tracks, so it is imperative that we leave as soon as possible before the orc-band strays from the site." Erestor nodded, so Elladan continued, "I have been searching for Myu, yet cannot find her anywhere, and I fear she may have taken.... something I said the wrong way. If you may be so kind as to deliver this message and read it to her, I would be in your debt. I trust you with the information it contains."  
  
Erestor groggily took the crisp, neatly-folded envelope from Elladan's hand. On the front were graceful elven characters that spelled out Kaneko Myu's name, and on the back, his personal wax seal. "I will do that," pledged Elrond's chief advisor. And as silent as a gust of wind, Elladan bowed and departed, shutting the door behind him. Erestor ran a slender finger over the wax, remembering the younger elf's word's when he said he was to read her the message. He found no harm in reviewing the letter's contents ahead of time and siced open the seal with a letter-opener.  
  
  
  
"My dearest Kaneko Myu,  
  
  
  
I regret that I had to leave you, and in retrospect, I should have told you of the importance of this mission. Please forgive me and know that I still care for you and wish you for my own. I have never seen a female of any race of middle earth so beautiful and unique as you, and your skill as a warrior is unparalleled. That, too, earns my deepest respect. I will be gone for a week and when I return, I hope to deepen the love we have for one another.  
  
Thinking of you,  
  
Elladan Peredhil"  
  
Erestor's eyes opened wide. Surely Elladan was not thinking of a serious relationship with this highly unusual female creature that fell out of the sky. He battled for a moment with conscience as to whether he should show Lord Elrond the letter, but decided he hadbest not. Elladan's father would find out in due time.  
  
Folding the letter neatly and pressing the wax together with his thumb, he slipped the paper back into its envelope and shut it away in a desk drawer. He would wait mid-morning when he was sure the letter's recipient was awake, and deliver the message to her formally and justly. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
  
A/N: Huge chapter which I hope is worth the wait. I reposted the FYI (For You Info) section about Myu's world for those who didn't get a chance to read it. And after that, you'll find reviewer responses. One reviewer requested a list of my cast of characters so far. You'll find that at the very bottom. And oh, look, the review button is down there too!  
  
*********  
  
part 1  
  
**********  
  
The ink, black as midnight, left a crooked trail after the tip of the quill. It had been a while before Legolas had written anything. He abhorred writing. It had also been a while since he had composed a message to anyone save routine dispatched which went to his father. He abhorred that, too. He used to wonder if there was anything he did like. He was tired of people, tired with himself and tired of in general life... that is, until last night. Something new had happened. He felt different this morning, a morning which stood out from the monotonous stream of the last six hundred or so years of his life...  
  
By the time he was finished, which was a terribly long and painful amount of time to spend on 9 letters, the tengwar spelled out the equivalent of C-A-N-I-K-O M-Y-U. He supposed that was how she spelled her name. He supposed she could have spelled her name in Angerthas, but they would look more elegant in Elvish characters of course. Dwarves just used these rigid, angular runes because they were too primitive to write on paper, he reminded himself. They were nasty little critters, and were only good for the gold and mithril they extracted from the earth....gold... Gold still made Legolas happy. With a start, the elf salvaged himself from his thoughts and concentrated once again on writingthe message as a librarian shuffled past re-shelving books.  
  
If human libraries are quiet, then libraries of elves are absolute silence. Save for the trees rustling outside the window, there was utter silence, as though the two librarians and the trio of book-engrossed scholars seated nearby were specters and not really there at all. It was hard to be patient with such silence putting one on edge, and after waiting for Myu for three hours, patience had become a luxury he could not afford. Either he would see her now, or would have to go out and track her down, leaving a message in case she happened by. She was not in her room after last night, and she said, yesterday, that she would meet him here in the morning, but she never did come. He did not know how else to find her. It was as though she was a dream lost in the night. A dream too good to be true.  
  
Legolas was interrupted by the voice of someone singing, definitely not an elf: "Hoshi wo kazoeru yori wa tayasuku... kumo no yukue wo shiru yori konnan de..." He knew then it had to be....  
  
"Myu!" He cried, standing and circling around a table to reach the small, groggy-looking form in the doorway, looking mighty surprised. She was wearing a gray tunic and deer-skin leggings that looked rather familiar, dressed with little heed to her appearance... just like any human, he reminded himself, then pushed that thought aside. He would settle things between them right here and now. "I have been looking everywhere for you!"  
  
"You have?" asked Myu with uncertainty.  
  
"Yes, yes, come sit with me."  
  
Myu let him lead her back to the desk he was sitting at. She took a seat and eyed the stationary that was spread out. "You know, I'm not really interested in learning from you anymore. Faelon just sent me here to get a book."  
  
Legolas had his hands on the inkwell and the pen in the midst of putting them away. The bite in that statement was just too much with too little notice. He dropped them both back where he picked them up, and sat down with a furrowed brow. "What do you mean by those words?"  
  
"It means I don't have time to talk to you. I have to go."  
  
She stood up, but he rose with her, staying her with his hand on her shoulder. "You do not mean that."  
  
"Shut up and let go of me!"  
  
Legolas opened his mouth to speak, prepared to bite back with equal fury. He wanted to demand she tell him why she was acting this way, and what happened to that Myu he saw last night who loved hugs, who was chasing him down just the other day to get history lessons from him. Who was this? What had happened? But from the look in her eyes, he could tell she did not have the patience to answer that. So he swallowed his pride and said simply; "Will you not at the least hear me out first?"  
  
Myu glared at him. He waited, and she was still standing there glaring at him, refusing to sit back down. "Well?" she prompted finally.  
  
"Last night..." Legolas began, pausing to watch her expression -- she shrugged, "Last night, something happened... something that has not happened to me for almost a six-hundred years."  
  
"What?"  
  
Eyeing the others present in the library, now watching them both with interest, Legolas asked, "Could we not discuss this somewhere else?"  
  
"I'm in a hurry."  
  
In his eyes, her contempt of him was almost unbearable. What was it about her that held power over him? Were she just another commoner in his own realm, he would have ordered her from his sight, and perhaps even kept her in confinement until she rethought her actions. Finally, he could not take it anymore and burst out. "No, you will stay here and listen to what I have to say," he hissed in a harsh whisper, attempting to ward off the questioning looks his way with sharp glares. "Something happened last night that you must understand."  
  
Finally, he coaxed Myu to sit down again. It looked as though he would have to tell her this here, although he would have greatly appreciated a place with more privacy.  
  
"Among elves," Legolas began, "finding a mate is much harder that among mortals. Since we are immortal beings, we cannot be allowed to procreate so easily. In order to do so, we must find our, iest inden, our 'heart's wish'. For with any other, we cannot reach the pinnacle of our passion and sew our seeds. I, myself, have been searching for my iest inden for over a thousand years. And I have finally found her..."   
  
For a moment, Myu looked like her old air-headed self again. "You can't sew your seeds?"  
  
Legolas nodded, blushing slightly. "Aye, not unless it is with our destined mate."  
  
Unfortunately, Myu's programming was only capable of translating literal meanings. "Like, garden seeds?"  
  
"No! Not garden seeds!" The elf cursed under his breath, "The seed of an elf."  
  
Myu considered. "Elves are plants?"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Then what do you mean?"  
  
Legolas wanted to get this over with quickly. He blushed as he just came out and said it under his breath.  
  
"Say what?"  
  
Legolas uttered it again, a little louder.  
  
Myu blinked innocently, "What's that?"  
  
"Myu!"  
  
"Alright, alright!" she laughed, giving him a hearty whack on the shoulder, then said much too loud for his comfort; "So why are you telling me about semen?"  
  
The librarian looked up from his book. Legolas offered a sheepish grin as casually as he could, though he knew his face was flaming. The librarian resumed his contemptuous glare, so Legolas turned to Myu and admonished firmly. "Be silent! Do not say such words in a public place!" Why was it that he was now the one who was angry?  
  
"Why? You said it."  
  
"Never mind. Just understand what I am trying to tell you."  
  
Myu blinked vacantly. "I forgot what we were talking about..." she admitted.  
  
Oh, dear. This was not going well. "Myu, I am telling you I can find passion with no other."  
  
Under Legolas' critical blue gaze, Myu licked her lips and contemplated what he said. All of a sudden her eyes flew wide open. "You're impotent?!" she exclaimed.  
  
For a second time Legolas gave a sheepish grin to the librarian, and offered an explanation to him in Elvish((I am merely teaching her about love among the Eldar.)) The librarian nodded, though not with altogether too much acceptance. Then Legolas ducked his head down and hissed at Myu loud enough for the onlooker to hear. "Nay! I am merely telling you that an elf cannot bear offspring unless it is with the one that he truly cares for, a one who must be sought, and for some is never found. This is one of the reasons why we elves must depart for the Undying Lands. We cannot replenish the losses we suffer at the hands of the enemy, for finding a mate and bearing younglings is overly difficult."  
  
"So why the taquitos are you telling me that?"  
  
The elf uttered a low growl and clasped her shoulder, turning her to face him, "So, my iest inden is you."  
  
Myu raised an eyebrow, "What's an 'iest inden'?"  
  
"Myu," Legolas smacked his forehead and huffed a sigh, thinking he had to explain it all over again, "Last night, when you were in the woods..."  
  
"Whao-ho-ho!" she pulled back out of his grasp. "Don't talk to me about last night, Lego-kun. I was so drunk I couldn't tell a tree from a squirrel."  
  
For a split second, time utterly froze. "...What is that supposed to mean?"  
  
"I'm saying I can't remember a thing so there's no use talking about what I was doing in the woods last night," she said offhandedly. "And there's no use griping at me if I did something wrong because I wasn't in control of myself. Wakatta? ((Got it?))"  
  
Breath suddenly caught in his throat. Legolas simply could not believe it. Could she be joking? She truly did not remember the love they shared that night? "If that is so, what was the cause for your anger when you came in here earlier?"  
  
Myu shrugged. "I was angry?"  
  
Something was not right. "I do not believe you. What is your game? Why are you doing this to me?"  
  
Myu shrugged again. "What am I doing."  
  
That did it. Legolas was practically shouting at her, "I have no patience for your games. This is very serious. You could be carrying my child!"  
  
Until the words had already left his mouth, Legolas did not notice that every single elf within earshot was staring his way in disbelief. Myu saw an opening and went for it. A look of sheer horror crossed her face (a very exaggerated look, but a look nonetheless). "W-what do you mean? Legolas? What happened to me last night? What did you DO?!"  
  
"What did YOU do?!" he shot back, jabbing an accusing finger after her. "YOU did this to me! You MADE me love you!"  
  
Myu's face crumpled into a near sob, clutching her belly, crying, "How could you do this to me, you monster!" Myu was decidedly corny at dramatics, but they were convincing regardless.  
  
((You forced yourself upon a mortal woman?)) accused a dark-haired elf in scholar's garb, who had stepped from the corner. He was glaring hard at Legolas, speaking in Elvish. ((Never had I thought one among the Eldar, much less a noble descendent of the Sindar, could commit such a crime. Thranduil's elves must have truly fallen low since their defeat at Dagorlad.)) Another elf near the doorway slipped out quietly in haste.  
  
Still unaware of the danger brewing, Legolas thought he recognized that elf. "I thought you told me you were going to bring book to Faelon," he told Myu with some sense of victory in his tone.  
  
Myu shrugged again. "Well... it IS a long way across the library."  
  
"Did you or did you not commit this act?" Faelon was mere feet from Legolas, booming in voice that demanded to be heard. "Did you force her when she was helpless?"  
  
Incredulity surfaced fully on Legolas expression as what he was being accused of just now sunk in. He found himself denying the charge fervently. "Of course not! She forced me!"  
  
"That's ridiculous!" Myu jumped in. "Who ever heard of a girl forcing a guy! Look at how puny I am!" Myu rolled her sleeve back to reveal her deceptively puny bicep. "He's much stronger than me!"  
  
"You little witch!" the Elf in question spat at her. "You had the strength to break the ribs of their gate-guards!"  
  
Myu looked at Faelon, and pointed at Legolas, making a face. "Do you think a man would actually admit he was violated by a woman if he really was?"  
  
Legolas' jaw dropped.  
  
"See! Look how desperate that face is! He'll say anything to get out of... of... whatever he did to me! I'm not sure what it was he did because I was completely drunk, see! But he definitely must have taken advantage of me because I didn't know what I was doing, so that must mean it wasn't a conscious choice!" Myu reasoned, "And if it wasn't a conscious choice, then, it must've been a *forced* *choice*!" she petitioned, stressing her make-shift terminology. "So he must have forced me then!"  
  
Faelon's accusing glare looked between Myu and Legolas, Myu and Legolas, then finally settled on Legolas. The Mirkwood prince struggled to say something, anything, but it all just came out as a bunch of incoherent grunts and squeaks. He was loosing a battle of wits to a complete moron!  
  
"I'm just so sexy, I just can understand that guys can't control themselves when they see me," Myu rambled on, "But FOR REAL! He's gotta learn how to treat a girl in a lady-like fashion! None of those two-minute tumbles in the bushes, if you know what I me--"  
  
"That is him, in the white tunic!"  
  
Still in shell shock, Legolas turned and saw the elf who had slipped out pointing at him in the doorway, as well as a pair of Elrond's house guards advancing on him very quickly, then looked down and realized he was wearing a white tunic, "You cannot apprehend me! I have done nothing!"  
  
"Yeah! That's right! You just got forced by a girl! Sure, we believe you!"  
  
"You witch!" the Elf shouted at the top of his lungs as struggled with him to bind his hands behind his back. "How dare you humiliate me like this!"  
  
"Legolas hirnin, Diheno nin." ((Milord Legolas, forgive me)) murmured one of the guards, as they finally got the wriggly elf under control.  
  
"Look! Look! He's gonna hurt me again!"  
  
"Mitho orch!" ((Go kiss an orch!)) Legolas struggled from being pulled out of the library to little avail.  
  
Myu had no idea what that was all about. "Nanda kono yaro! Monku ga aru nara, ore ni hakkiri ieba ii daro! ((Hey, you f*cker! If you got a problem, spit it out!))  
  
"Sulon gwanna nif lin!" ((Much wind pours from your mouth!))  
  
"Ore wo namenee, kusobozu!" ((Don't you mess with me, you little sh*t!))  
  
"Iell lyg!" ((Daughter of snakes!))  
  
"Tanki!" ((Little pen!))  
  
She barely got that insult out before the door slammed shut behind the furious elf.  
  
"Please, come with me to the house of healing," invited Faelon. "I am sure you must be bereaved."  
  
Myu nodded vacantly, then hesitated to follow, trying to decide if the entertainment value of what just happened was worth the possible repercussions. Was it that Myu was suddenly feeling a tug of conscience?  
  
"Naaahhh!" With that stereotypical smile back on her face, she followed Faelon out of the library, patting Elladan's letter still safe in her pocket.  
  
*************  
  
Part 2  
  
************  
  
Holding up a dainty purple flower, one that reminded him of locks of his true love's hair, he stared at it vacantly. The hand that held it was filthy and blistered. How could she ever love one such as him? Gothul wondered. How could anyone ever love an orc? For the first time in his life he regretted being one. It was as if a spell was broken and he finally realized who and what he was, and how utterly disgusting and pointless was his existence. He did not want to kill anymore. He just wanted that lovely maid with the shiny gem-like eyes and purple-blonde hair to cherish. But the orcish and goblin minions prowling about him reminded him painfully that he was a servant of the Nazgul. They had used him as bait, to lure the elves out of the trees and to slaughter them two days prior. He did not even know it until the ambush had descended upon the party. The Ringwraith who led the attack rewarded him with a pardon for his "indecent behavior" towards the maiden and he was once again in charge of a fair-sized war party. But he didn't want to be in charge! He just wanted that human maid!He did not even know her name.  
  
"Whoever this wench is, she must indeed be a powerful witch to ensnare an orc in a love spell," hissed a voice that made skin crawl and hair stand on end. Gothul looked up with sad, puppy-dog eyes to see nothing more than shadow framed by a black hood. A pair of wicked looking gauntlets grasped a long, broad-sword, which the Nazgul pointed at the orc and demanded in black speech, "On thy feet, worm!" Something about the forcefulness of this elite minion of Sauron bolted the wayward orc to his feet in an instant, "By the darkness invested in me, I grant thee thy freedom from this curse! Afar Vadokanuk!"  
  
Gothul blinked, then looked at the flower.  
  
"What is this?! My power is ineffective against this woman's curse?! Undur Kurv! I shall skin her alive and watch the blood pour--"  
  
"Broshan! Tanfuksham Nazgul!" ((Hail, almighty Ringwraith!)) cried one of the Nazgul's lieutenants, "Grimus Gimbuzat shara agh fiim olgul tau-tuk tor-glad kraatu ((The scout spotted a man and a boy walking through the woods a thousand 'glad' from here.))  
  
"Mash rrug?" ((Which way?))  
  
"Talaan." ((North.))  
  
((Describe the youngling's appearance.))  
  
The orc gathered what little brain power it had to produce a satisfactory image, ((He was young...)) The Nazgul folded his arms angrily across his chest, causing the poor orc to scramble for better detail, ((He was tall for a human youngling, and stout of frame he was. His dark brown locks were cropped short and slight wavy.))  
  
((And his eyes? What color were his eyes?))  
  
((Grey, milord Nazgul.))  
  
"Grey..." The Nazgul scratched his head (or what sufficed as a head anyways) in contemplation, "They head away from the Elven city of Imladris, and the youngling had gray elf-eyes. Surely he is the son of Arathorn, descendent of Luthien whom Elrond is rumored to be raising as his own son..." The wraith turned to Gothul, the poor love-stricken orc who was still twirling the flower between thumb and forefinger, "Givest me that!" the Nagul cried ripping the flower from his hand, flinging it to the ground and trampling it. Gothul's bottom lip began to quiver. "Dost thou recall whence came that witch? She is hidden in the elf city is she not? Elrond is harboring her power. Is that not so?"  
  
Gothul cringed back a little. The Nazgul's voice was quite ear-gouging. "Forgive me, Goth Nazgul, I do not know. The elves who found me said they heard not of such a woman as I described."  
  
"Of course elves would say so! They are liars! She must indeed be there!" The wraith spun and pointed a sharp metal finger at the scout who brought him news of the boy and man, "Thou! Taketh a swift war party! Findest the two of them and capture them both. I want them brought back to me alive!"   
  
Without a breath of hesitance, the orc was off, gathering a party of warg-mounted goblins. "Elrond has too soft a heart," sneered the Nazgul, turning back to Gothul who was still sitting on a tree-stump with a dreamy look in his eyes, "If the youngling is indeed Elrond's human son, as a father, he would have no choice but to negotiate without compromise to spare his life. He will hand the sorceress over to us, and her power will henceforth be at the disposal of great Lord Sauron! Hail Lord Sauron! Hail!"  
  
Orcs began to clamor, pounding the butts of the spears on the ground and banging their swords on their shields in reverence to the Nazgul and Lord Sauron. Gothul at first didn't know if what the Nazgul was planning to do was a good thing, but then again, he would get to see that maiden again, so he guessed that would be nice. He too began to pound his fist on his armored chest whole-heartedly. The only other sound out side the steady pounding of orc was the howls of wargs as they carried their riders off into the late afternoon.  
  
************  
  
Part 3  
  
************  
  
Myu's Musings  
  
Entry No.: 00923889  
  
Subject: Gulp...  
  
Date: 01-09-0000  
  
Aw, man. I can't believe I just boinked Legolas last night. Taquitos! That must have been some strong liquor. I didn't mean to find him the morning after, really. I forgot I told him I wanted to meet him in the library for lessons again, and I came across him waiting for me (I was actually going to see if Faelon was there so he could read Elladan's letter for me again ^-^). When I walked in, Lego took one look at me, flashed his brilliant-white gators and told me to sit down because he had something important to tell me. I didn't think it would be a good thing since well, I just, well, y'know... kinda pinned him down and made him squeal like a piggy. I started out trying to act like I was in a hurry (plus a monster hangover was making me cranky, which furthered my cause). That's when he said something about seeds and problems concerning sexual reproduction among elves. I really didn't get it entirely. It was kinda like sitting in at a meeting of Viagra-addicts anonymous. Basically, what I interpreted it as is that the blonde-haired poofer actually enjoyed screaming as much as I did making him scream last night. One would figure that physically violating someone would make him or her not like you anymore, but I dunno. That's just me and I'm stupid you know. I remember being a little unnerved when he smiled at me after I-- we were done and whispered my name like one of those raspy voices on the perfume commercial. I just went "okay" and fled the scene, passing it off as temporary insanity on his part. He did look and sound like he enjoyed himself -- fair enough--, but TAQUITOS! talking about babies and stuff the next day is just plain freaky.  
  
Anyways, that's when I started to realize my dilemma: Legolas was jeopardizing my future position as princess of Rivendell! If Elladan finds out what I did, things will might get nasty. What an unfortunately-timed love letter! If only I had known his true feelings earlier! It was his fault for making me think he didn't like me anymore! He was the reason why I got mad-drunk and molested a hapless blonde. The things he made me do! ... Well, anyways, that's my argument in case Legolas manages to snitch on me. Even though, thanks to his big mouth, the secret's out that we had-- ahem-- intimate dealings with each other, I think I managed to make people think that HE was actually the one who forced ME , rather than the other way around. Apparently, people here are too old-fashioned to have heard of fem-rape, which is quite common in my world. Poor, poor,innocent elf-creatures. What have I subjected them to?  
  
Anyways (remind me to look up a synonym for "anyways" sometime-- it's getting redundant at the beginning of every paragraph), Now I'm worried about what's going to happen. Legolas is in trouble now to save my hide and I'm guilty as all-get-out. And right now, both of us are getting way too much of the wrong attention. Almost the entire day, the physician has been talking to me and patting my shoulder for the last hour or so, telling me not to hold in my grief (I suppose he's waiting for me to cry -- which I'm not having any luck doing), and there is another red-haired guy, I think that's Barador, coming in and reporting every once in a while of how the interrogation is going with "the prisoner", and it sounds pretty brutal. (Taquitos, I hope they're not torturing Legolas or anything). Should I be worried about all this? Won't it pass eventually and everything go back to normal? Should I try to get Lego-kun out of this mess?  
  
Well... Lego-kun's still a cutie. Though in retrospect, I don't think I saw anything in him besides that. After all, he went off and left me twice (once after dinner my first day here, and second after I found Gresham). So why should I care? This might help deflate that ego of his a bit. I've had my fill of big-headed people who have so little respect for me that they ignore me rather than letting me know how they feel. And just a little while ago, Lego-kun yelled at me to "Be silent". I'm sorry, but I wasn't raised in a kennel. He can try that on one of his other obedient four-legged girlfriends for all I care. Elladan wouldn't say or do anything like that. He's always been so nice to me (he ventured out into the wilderness to rescue me and took two arrows for me, I mean how much more romantic can you get?!) I just don't see him as one to admonish or try to change me (after all, what's the point in being with some one if you don't like who they are in the first place?).Now that I think about it, if Elladan really isn't takin' me for a ride (I gotta wait till he comes back in a week or so to know for sure), perhaps, just perhaps my life really could turn out happily ever after. *sigh* Now that I have had a closer look at this Rivendell place, I really think I could live here. They have all kinds of arts. I don't fancy gardening and green stuff, of course (and taquitos is there a lot of it here!)... or pollen... but, on the bright side, never again will I have to concern myself with astrophysics, or machines, or interplanetary wars, or managing cleaning robots, or being the ignorant one (heh, compared to these guys, I'm pretty smart. They still use the geocentric model for astronomy!). The world of 3076 is gone for good and there's no way back and no one will ever miss me. But then again, it is pretty boring here... Oooh doilies!  
  
~Kaneko Myu, Signing-Out~  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Part 4  
  
*****************  
  
Earth, North Asian Pacific, Ezo Island (formerly known as Hokkaido).  
  
October 13, 3076. 3:30 PM  
  
****  
  
FLASH LIGHTNING MP 130 AP 12 OK? Y N  
  
Haruki considered. If he did that, then the spell would eat up all his character's Ability Points. Ability Points were hard to get back in Final Fantasy 687. He liked FF 686 better because they didn't use stupid APs. He growed at the three dimensional monitor. If he didn't cast the spell, then Yukibaba would surely cast Absolute Zero again and his party would be annihilated. He was out of heat salve and three out of four of his party members were already frozen. Stupid Yukibaba. He could not fail! Not after he had come so far! Never!  
  
"Haruki-chan! Sono asobi wo ue ni hakonde chodai ne. Kyakusan ga kita kara, Haha wa mamonaku chanoma made minna wo tsurete kuru ne." ((Haruki dear, Bring your game upstairs, okay? Since guests have come, mommy will be bringing them all to the living room in a bit.))   
  
Haruki bit his lip and defiantly ignored the sweet, sugar coated voice. He had just gotten been to the emergency room! He didn't deserve that kind of Haruki-do-this-Haruki-do-that treatment. He didn't feel anything after they shot him with pain-killers, but this itchy silicon cast was quite uncomfortable. It covered his forearm up to the elbow where he had gotten another arm cloned and transplanted after he broke his last one when he fell off his sky-board last night after dinner. Stupid organic body. He wished he could just hurry up and finish growing so that he could get a type-three cybernetic body like everyone else. Even though he was born in and mended by machines, which made his organic body without mistakes, it still wasn't as good as being a machine like mom and dad were.  
  
"Haruki?"  
  
"Chitto mato, Chiharu!" ((Wait a minute, Chiharu!)) he told his mom. After he cast the spell, one of his characters had thawed. He had a winning chance now! He was tapping fervently on the action button with his good hand. Couldn't his mom understand how important this was? That was when the screen suddenly blanked out. Haruki's eyes widened in horror, and turned to see his angry mother holding the disembowel battery supply of his video console.  
  
"Imasugu, sono gaki!" ((Right now, you little brat!)) His mom barked.  
  
Haruki was speechless for a second as he just now realized that he hadn't saved the game in the last three hours. "Kono Kuso-baba!" ((You old hag!)) he shrieked.  
  
The blonde woman stomped her foot at the obstinant child and spat fire. "Atashi wa anta no haha-oya de, kuso-baba nanka ja nee yo! Ayamaro!" ((I'm your mother, not some old hag! Apologize!)) The child stuck his lip out stubbornly, still gasping in deep breaths in an attempt to hold back his rage.  
  
{I see you still have the same ineptitude for child-rearing, Chiharu.}  
  
The voice seemed to emanate from within Haruki's very thoughts, and suddenly the child felt calm and somewhat sleepy. His mother felt the compelling voice too, but she was more used to it and shook her head to salvage herself from the mild attempt at mind control. The child turned and saw the pair of guests had already shown themselves in. One was a lanky man with frizzled hair and a dirty lab-coat with a Superman-style "K" on the back, carrying a file folder. And the other, leaning against the foyer, oh, he was much more interesting.   
  
The "other" was alien, that was for sure, built much like a human, but with colorless skin and blank multi-faceted eyes that were slightly bio-luminescent. He was telepathic, evident from the nerve cords growing from the base of his skull, much like an antenna, sensitive to cerebral pulses. A mohawk of gilded feather-like plumage grew down the center of a bald scalp, and folded behind his back was his most prominent feature; a pair of wings nearly twenty feet in span. A look of sheer delight crossed Haruki's face. It was Myu's dad! Myu's dad was SO cool, far better than any type-three he ever met. He wanted to grow up to be an Ashura just like Myu's dad, but mom said they didn't make those models of bodies for humans yet.  
  
Usually, Jin would only come with his half-sister Myu to baby-sit him on New Years, so he and mom and dad could go out drinking all night, but he never really got to see him other than over the holidays. He wondered what he was doing here now. "Jin!" the six-year-old cried and raced to the alien to be lifted up. Kaneko Jin was very tall, nearly six and a half feet in height, and when he lifted Haruki up over his head, he could almost touch the ceiling. Haruki liked Myu's dad,dispite the fact he was an alien. Most people either feared or hated him because he wasn't from Earth, or had an aloof respect for him. Mom said he was a moron.  
  
"Naze otozure ni kita no, Jin-san?" ((Why did you come to visit us, Jin?)) Haruki asked as he was set back down again.  
  
"Narehodo. Imagoro otozureru koto wa chitto myo wa ne," ((Indeed. Visiting us around this time is strange isn't it,)) agreed the mother with suspicious overtones, "Nanno hitsuyou na no?" ((What's the occasion?))  
  
Jin looked up at the blonde-headed woman, Tsurukawa Chiharu, who was once his wife and his green card to stay on Earth as a permanent resident. She looked exactly like Myu down to every last feature, save the lack of purple streaks in her hair. Of course that would be so. Myu was her clone. {We lost Myu,} the alien projected to her mind, giving the mental impression of a frown.  
  
Chiharu raised an eyebrow, and asked as crude as ever; "Doko de? Ittai nani ga okotta no?" ((Where? What the hell happened?))  
  
Jin hesitated to answer.  
  
"Myu-chan wa isho ni konakatta no?" ((Didn't Myu come with you?)) chirped a little voice that Chiharu almost forgot about. Chiharu looked down into the Haruki's wide blue eyes and realized Jin had been speaking (or whatever one would call it) so his words reached her mind only.  
  
"Iya. Myu wa shigoto shinakya." ((Nope. Myu had to work.)) Chiharu told him without any hint that she was lying (which was one of her skills, if Jin recalled correctly). "Kore kara ue nitte, asobanai no kai?" ((Won't you go upstairs now and play?)) The child put up a little more of his typical stubbornness, before clomping off upstairs. Chiharu turned back to Jin. "Ja, Myu wa doko?" ((So, where's Myu?))  
  
{Not "where", "when".}  
  
Chiharu rolled her eyes. "Hora. Kondo nante sono butsuri no manuke-tachi wa nani wo yatchatta no?" ((Alright. What have you physics morons done THIS time?))  
  
Jin nodded to his shoddy-looking accomplice. {I believe professor Kudo can explain that to you.}  
  
Professor Kudo swallowed hard. He was obviously one of those people who feared Kaneko Jin. "Ishukan mae gurai, Myu wa, wagako no yakei hitori wo Koshito de hidoku kizuzukete, Watakushi ga kumitateteru tokoro no hatsumeihin wo tsukatte, dasshutsu shite shimaimashita." ((About a week ago, Myu badly injured one of our night security guards with a Koshito blade and escaped using the invention I was in the middle of building.))  
  
After a moment to consider what she was told, Chiharu spun to face her ex-husband and landed a sound slap on his face. "Jin! Nante iu koto ka yo!" ((Jin! I'm ashamed of you!))  
  
The perturbed-looking being staggered back. {What?! Why?}  
  
"Uketsuki da kara! Moshi isshukan mae datta ra, sonna ni hidoi koto nara, sude ni nyuusu de kiitchattan wa yo! ((You're a liar! If that was a week ago, I would have already heard something that terrible on the news!))  
  
{Kudo's invention was a time machine, Chiharu. The case has been classified to avoid public disclosure. If civilians were to get word of such a devise, the results could be disastrous. Myu has been thrown back seven thousand years into the past, and as far as we know, there is no way to get her back.}  
  
Chiharu was about to open her mouth and laugh at the thought of a Time Machine, but suddenly her thoughts changed. In an instant, It came to her: That morning about a week ago when Myu went missing. Jin could hardly believe what had happened, and went immediately to see the injured security guard for further information, who was in the process of being rebuilt, then worked with Kudo to figure out to what time the Time Gateway was calibrated. Chiharu somehow felt she remembered the detective reports Jin had been hearing, and the several day's worth of experiments and investigations that he undertook to figure out where Myu was. She felt more than convinced that he told the truth. She felt as if there was nothing more true than the words Kaneko Jin spoke. She felt as if... "Atashi no ki wo kawaraseru koto yame nasai!"((Would you quit changing my mind for me?!)) Chiharu lashed out at Jin, but he was expecting it this time and stepped back out of range.  
  
Jin gave a crooked, yet triumphant smile and turned to go with Kudo who already looked more than ready to get out the door and back to the lab. {Regardless of whether or not you believe me. Professor Kudo and I have just isolated Myu's time sector, two weeks after her date of arrival, and her general location. We will be attempting to salvage her back to the present. It was merely my duty to inform you of your daughter's whereabouts, in case something goes wrong and I do not return. Good day.}  
  
Jin tried to leave, but Chiharu suddenly stepped in front of him and Kudo. "Chitto ne. Hitori de Myu wo tsuiseki suru no?" ((Waitaminnute! You're going after her by yourself?))  
  
{Is that not what a father should do?} Jin narrowed his eyes at her.  
  
Chiharu blinked, looking as though she was in deep contemplation. "Mo chitto ne. Myu ga kako ni iru koto wa wareware ni eikyou wo oyobosu no?" ((Hold on again. Will her being in the past have any effect on us?))  
  
{No. Time is a three dimensional plane like space. In the same way that a single object or person cannot occupy more than one place at once, Myu cannot occupy more than one point on a time stream. She is merely branched off in a separate dimension that runs more or less perpendicular to our own.}  
  
Chiharu blinked as her blond brain attempted to fathom that.  
  
{Either way, you obviously have no concerns for you daughter's safety,   
  
therefore, I bid you a good day.}  
  
Unfortunately, Chiharu stepped in front of Jin and Kudo again. "Sou iu wake de wa nai! Kanojo no koto wo kangaeru no yo!" ((That's not true! I do care for her!)) she looked between Jin and Kudo, finding only stark mockery in her ex-husband's eyes.  
  
{Don't make me laugh!} he provoked.  
  
Chiharu stuck her lip out in a pout, much like Haruki had done moments ago. After a stiff moment, she made her choice, turned on heel, grabbed her coat, and waved Jin and Kudo after her out the alcove. "Yoshi! Atashi ga... isho ni musume wo tsuiseki shiyo!" ((Alright! *I* am going after my daughter with you.))  
  
"Hee! Muri desho, Tsurukawa-san!" ((What?! That's impossible, Mrs. Tsurukawa!)) Kudo dropped his folders and was about to go after her when Jin's hand landed on his shoulder and steadied him. Kudo took one look at his smile and suddenly understood. Kudo dropped his voice to a whisper and asked: "Zutto sore wo keikaku shite irassharu n desu ka? Kaneko-buchou no kawari ni okusama wo kako ni ikaseru to iu wake de utagaimashita ka?" ((You've been planning this all along? That's the reason you came here, to have your wife go back into the past instead of you?))  
  
Jin shook his head, still smiling, {Not necessarily. If you recall correctly, we have not had a chance to actually test your invention on a living subject.}. Since Kudo still had that blank look on his face, Jin laughed, patted him on the shoulder, then followed Chiharu down the hall of the apartment complex, projecting to his mind only: {Two words, Kudo: TEST MONKEY.}  
  
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&  
  
FYI (For Your info) : Concerning Type-Three Humans and the World of 3076  
  
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  
  
A/N: This is just here for clarification if anyone wants to read it. If truth be told, I dreaded writing this because it's so geeky. I was one of those weird kids who were endlessly enthused about science classes in high-school (I still am =P), so enthused, in fact, that I applied what I learned to creating this futuristic sci-fi world for my writing. I didn't actually mean to apply my world to this story, since this is fanfic, and supposed to be about Tolkien's work, not mine. BUT evidentially, I DID, and it created a lot of confusion. So, to clear things up, here's Myu's universe in a nutshell if anyone wants to read it. (I tried to make it as small a nutshell as I possibly could, honest)  
  
Advantage of Type-Three Models of Human-Beings :   
  
Myu's "type-three" body grants her two things: better efficiency and more self-reliance. In other words; it cuts down on the things she needs. For example: Myu doesn't need a flashlight because she can see infrared. Myu doesn't need medical attention because her body can mend itself effeciently. Myu doesn't need a car because she can run fast. Myu doesn't need to spend months memorizing stuff because she can download it directly into her implanted CPU chip... These things improve the not only the quality of human life, but also the human race itself, making it more competitive with advanced alien races (I'm not going to get into that =P)  
  
Superpowers :   
  
None. Average type-three humans (civilians) are not given "super powers" (e.g. Jet Li martial arts action, Superman flight, superhuman intelligence, heat-vision, etc.) because the population needs to be kept under control. (If you've seen the movie X-Men 2, you'd know how difficult it is for the police to detain someone with superpowers.) In short, Civilians are only given augmentations that are beneficial to their safety and convenience, not for offense. This is why Myu can't fight worth a crap.  
  
Type Two's:   
  
Type-twos were the first advanced models of human beings that were adopted publicly, and in truth, they were a lot like elves. Unlike the later, more advanced type-threes, they did have blood and required consumption of food and drink, but unlike their naturally-evolved, "type-one" human ancestors (i.e. you and me); they lived longer, did not show appearance of age, did not need to eat as much, were not prone to infection, illness or fatigue, and did not have, as Myu puts it, "a stink".  
  
Co-Cerebral CPU Chip:   
  
Co-Cerebral CPU chips are to future students, as calculators are to today's students. There is nothing special or spiffy about them. These chips are not artificially intelligent, and can do little more than the PC you're using right now. Since CPU chips are a requirement for public schooling, they are cheap, of moderate quality, and readily available to the general public, not specially equipped to aid little lost girls who've fallen into Middle-Earth.  
  
No Food :   
  
Myu doesn't need food. As normal humans, our bodies use food to produce energy and replace damaged tissue and dead-cells. However, our imperfections leave a lot to be desired: Our bodies are, as of now, only 20% energy-efficient, with the other 80% being released as useless heat energy. Also, most cells in our bodies are volatile and short-lived, and we need food to replace them (skin grows and sheds, muscle tissue gets strained and snaps, calcium is needed to rebuild bone matter, etc...). Through biotechnology, Myu's people have found a way to perfect the human body, making it virtually 100% efficient, and durable enough to go without repair for centuries. And since Myu's body is so efficient and requires so little energy, she can live off of oxygen alone, and does not need any food whatsoever. Although... ingesting food would not hurt her. But since type-three's like her are not provided with a digestive system (which would be pointless and cost extra) the only way to get rid of ingested solids is out the way they came in (i.e. barf). Thought type threes don't need food anymore, food-vocabulary (i.e. taquitos) is still around for various purposes (e.g., exclaimations, usernames, expressions)  
  
Drinks :   
  
Myu can drink to make up for the lack of eating. In fact, some drinks in her time are made to taste like food (ice cream, apples, etc), by extracting the chemicals you taste in these foods and mixing them into the drinks. These beverages, ranging in texture from watery to syrupy to yogurt-like, are passed through the body and stored in a bladder until the person finds a place to pee. Since type-three bodies are not composed of any liquids, they do not need water like our bodies do (being 80% water). They do, however, absorb water vapor to keep their skin soft, and their mouth and eyes moist, but would not die if they can't.  
  
Alcohol :   
  
Myu can still get drunk. Alcohol consumption has been a favorite past time for homo-sapiens since the dawn of time, so they won't likely abandon it until the end of time. Even though the effects of illegal drugs have been nullified in type-three's, scientists have been forced by consumer demand to find a way to make type-three bodies react to alcohol as the normal human body does, so people can blissfully continue getting themselves hammered.   
  
Earth in the Year 3045 and the Amish :   
  
Basically, there's no environment left in 3045; no trees, no animals, no insects, no bacteria... except in handful of isolated biodomes that make up Planet Earth's wildlife reservations. Type-three humans view the environment like this: the earth was just a cradle for mankind in its infancy, for him to shape and mold as his understanding of the world around him grew and he learned how to manipulate it to his convenience. However, there are still grassroots environmentalists and animal-rights activists who oppose this. They, instead of advancing with the rest of the world, chose to remain as original, naturally-evolved human beings (or type-two models if they weren't that conservative) and live isolated away in these biodomes. Myu's kind call these people "Amish" for their refusal to advance. This is why Myu calls the elves "Amish people".  
  
Physical structure of Type-Three Humans :   
  
Type-three humans have: 1) a respiratory system, 2) a nervous system, 3) a reproductive system, 4) a skeletal system and 5) a muscular system, but no circulatory or digestive systems. Instead of having blood to carry oxygen to cells, the cells are spaced in a hollow, sponge-like mesh that filters air molecules through them to be absorbed by their thick membranes.   
  
Respiration: Type-three cells are very versatile and can sustain themselves individually, without the aid of other organs, and can "breathe" both oxygen and carbon-dioxide. The bulk of each cell is a gummy, semi-liquid plasma that acts as a battery to store the energy it garners from CO2/O2 reactions.   
  
Healing Factor:   
  
In the cell's center, the tiny nucleus, making up about 5% of the cell, is actually a microscopic computer, which stores the genetic data of the person and administers cell functions (hence 5% cyborg). When type-three's are stabbed with a blade for instance, their cells are designed to get out of the way. After the obstructing blade is removed, the cybernetic cell nuclei, using the genetic data like a map, are able to move the displaced cells back to where they were originally and reconnect the sturdy threads that hold them together, thus mending the wound quickly and flawlessly.   
  
Skeletal system:   
  
Type-three's are almost entirely made up of complex, synthetic material, which cannot be found in food. The only non-synthetic material is their skeleton, which is Titanium (a metal that is as strong as steel, yet light as aluminum), reinforced with titanium-carbide coating (titanium-carbide is used today for expensive drill bits that can puncture steel and concrete).  
  
Ashura (the alien species Myu's dad belongs to):  
  
Ashura, named after Hindu war gods for their fierce appearance, are aliens hailing from Galaxy NGC 4697 on the far end of the Virgo Supercluster. They are by far the most advanced species yet encountered by homo sapiens, with technology enough to travel to the most distant quasars and bodies and minds more capable than any machine, cyborg or super computer 31st centurey human beings could engineer. As advanced telepaths, they communicate not only by thought, but in an array of sensory and metasensory information, which the human brain is much too weak and slow to process. They have a grand total of 21 senses whereas human beings have only 5 (touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing), and each Ashuran sense is much more highly developed. Their eyes can focus on everthing at once in their frame of sight, wheras human beings are limited to a single focal point. Their ears are multi-percussioned, which allows them to distinguish sound better (so if you were in a restaurant with 20 people talking, you would hear each conversation, and not just a murmur). For humanity, the dilemma in matching these advanced sensory funtions is not, for example, making an eye that can see all at once, but making a brain that can process the amount of visual information that eye can see. Thus, Ashura are superior, not so much by physical attributes, but by sheer brain power.   
  
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ANSWERS TO REVIEWERS  
  
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Joy4eva: Hopefully this is a change for the better. I don't think I could possibly write something politically correct to begin with  
  
CSI: I'm glad you like it. Thank you for beta-reading, you did a good job.   
  
ASHES2: Er, sorry about your operation, and thanks. And I know what you mean about bad Japanese teachers, my first one was an fine arts undergraduate from Nagoya studying abroad who knew nothing at all about teaching. And try writing the principle Kanji to memorize them better, doodle them in your spare time. Its okay if you forget. It's very common for even native Japanese and Chinese to forget how to write them, but one tends to recall how to read them even if.  
  
NAOMI MAXWELL: Thank you for beta reading, it helped a lot. Longer chapter for you (which you had to check, mwa-ha-ha (^-^))  
  
KAIO: Poor, poor, Leggy-kun. *sobs*. I'm not sure if she did pass out on top of him, I was trying to keep details down to a minimum this time. =P Hope you enjoy this chapter  
  
MORIMA: Thanks, thats quite a compliment. I'm just trying something different so i feel like I'm doing something worthwhile with my word processor. And I really never meant for Myu to be a Mary-Sue; she's not me or my alter ego in disguise. She's supposed to be normal in context of a advaced cybernetic superhuman of the 31st century, but, unfortunately, no matter how many mental flaws I give her, it gives her a degree of advantages and invincibility in Middle Earth that works out to be a Mary Sue no matter how I cut it.  
  
BORN TO BE HANGED: "Legolas is such a player" LOL. That's exactly what I'm going for. Tolkien's Legolas is a male version of a Mary-Sue all over. I figure some flaws, like being an incurable playboy, wouldn't hurt.  
  
IMPROVED UBER REI MODEL 06:   
  
CAST of CHARACTERS  
  
The characters I didn't make up;  
  
ESTEL (Elvish for "Hope") - Estel is Aragorn (Strider), but was called this in his youth. His true name and lineage was hidden from him by Elrond who feared that Sauron would find him. I can't call him Aragorn in this fic because he doesn't know that's his real name yet.  
  
Celebrian = Elrond's wife who was departed from him in 2510 of the third age. She was tortured to death by orcs and rescued too late by their twin sons  
  
Elladan and Elrohir = the twin sons of Elrond and Celebrian  
  
Thranduil = Legolas' dad, the king of Mirkwood which is far northeast of Rivendell across the Misty Mountains  
  
Erestor = Elron's head advisor  
  
The ones I did make up:   
  
Kaneko Jin = Myu's dad, an alien who came to experiment on earth away from the laws and restrictions of his own planet  
  
Tsurukawa Chiharu = Myu's mom. She married Kaneko Jin fo selfish reasons and divorced him soon after, leaving him with a clone of herself, Myu, who they were raising as their daughter.  
  
Tsurukawa Haruki = Chiharu's real son with the husband she is currently married to.  
  
Professor Kudo = the wierd, shabby-looking science guy who built the Time Gateway  
  
Yanagi = the security guard Myu thought she accidentally killed, and tried to escape because of it.  
  
Anendel = son of the famous Glorfindel of Rivendell (an elf warrior/nobleman who is known for killing a baelrog). He is in charge of patroling for orcs around Rivendell when Elladan and Elrohir are away, which is quite often  
  
Barador = the elf in charge of holding Myu in prison, who was not very successful  
  
Lothiel = the elf-maid legolas was hitting on before Myu ruined it  
  
Amanthon = one of the young elf warriors who is Elladan's friend to some degree. He goes after Myu with him when she breaks out of jail to use the toilet.  
  
Gothul = the orc captain who is vanquished by Myu and falls madly in love with her. 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
  
A/N: "The PC Lab is closed due to flooding until further notice." That sign has been posted on the %&#$in' campus computer lab, my sole sorce of internet, for nearly a month! Now when's the last time you heard of stupid basement being flooded for a month? It didn't flood when we had a hurricane last year, and it hasn't snowed, so where's the flood coming from? Were the seagulls dumping buckets of seawater down the AC vents again? They're a bunch of liars and they didn't even put a "We're sorry for the inconvinience", which was the least they could do since it was the beginning of the semester when everyone (including me) wanted to adjust their schedules online. Who decided to put all the mentally deficient people working for administration? Morons. You people with internet at home... count your blessings.  
  
Erm. Now that I'm done complaining, I apologize for the tardiness (I meant to post last Monday after I found out the lab was open again, but I kept forgetting to bring the stupid disk, or alternately couldn't find an open PC because half of them are out of order). I have gotten about 3 chapters done in the mean time, plus finished working out the plot.  
  
P.S. Oh, and one more thing. I went to see the movie "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" because it filmed in West Virginia (my home state) and that girl who plays "Rosie"-- the airhead blonde who 'wins a date' (I think the actress is Kate Biseworth, Boseworth-- I'll have to look it up again)... That's Myu! I swear! She's perfect! I even downloaded a pic so now I have a mental image for my character!  
  
P.P.S. I didn't send this to a beta because I wanted up ASAP after such a long delay. Please bear with me.  
  
************  
  
Somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away....  
  
"Ashita wo yubisashi yume wo daite, kagayaku mirai wo kizuki ageyo!" ((Lets embrace dreams for tomorrow and build a brighter future! )) Myu sang along with the music in a crackling voice as she layed prostrate on her bed, reading a back issue of Ezo Fashion Magazine and swinging her feet to the happy tune. The room was green and blue and purple. On the wall was a poster depicting a white cartoon cat wearing pink bows and a dress while wielding a giant bloodied meat cleaver, entitled "Bye-bye Kitty". At the foot of the bed, slept Myu's robotic pet lemur, Lord Okinamaro (actually, it was just on standby).  
  
Myu turned the magazine page, "Jibun wo shinjite tsuyoku ikiyo-o! Umarekawaru you na kinen no shunkan! La, la, la, la, la.... Uwa! Hidoi kutsu nante!"((Let's believe in ourselves and live strong! A moment to remember like we were born again! La, la, la, la, la... Ack! What hideous shoes!))  
  
BAAAAP-BAAAAP-BAAAAP-BAAAAP-BAAAAP....  
  
In an initial, instictive reaction, Myu hopped off the bed and screamed at the rather unexpected, rather loud and unpleasant buzzing noise that flooded her room, drowning out the music, as loud as it was already. The noise ceased and there was a pause. Myu fluttered her hand at the motion sensors that lowered the volume.  
  
WE INTERUPT THIS DREAM-MATRIX BROADCAST TO BRING YOU A REAL-WORLD UPDATE. MOTION DETECTORS HAVE PICKED UP A SECRURITY BREACH BY AN UNIDENTIFIED BIPEDIAL ORGANISM IN SECTOR 008 (CODE NAMED: "THE STUPID ROOM WITH ALL THE DOILLIES"). THE INTRUDER IS CURRENTLY 5.7 FEET FROM THE USER. IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT THE USER ABORT THE CURRENT DREAM-MATRIX AND INVESTIGATE INTRUSION. PERSONAL POSSESSION(S) MAY BE AT STAKE.  
  
Myu shot up from her bed. "Nan datte?! Nimotsu wo sagashiteru hito iru no?" ((Say what?! There's someone going thorugh my things?)) Her face twisted into an ominous scowl. "Pyutaa! Imasugu mugen-gyoretsu wo kaihou shinasai!" ((Computer! Disengage the dream-matrix immediately!)) .....  
  
Back in the house of Elrond, the poor elf maid-servant had already been uneasy of venturing into the room of what she heard to be a unidentified female creature of baelrog-like strength, Nazgul-like immortality and orc-like intelligence. She was in the process of replacing the flower vase on the dressor with fresh lilies when, a mere 5 or 6 feet away from the aforementioned creature in a deep slumber, excersizing an utmost definition of the word "silence", when suddenly...  
  
"Aha! Hands off, or I'll administer such a brutal @ss-kicking, you'll be walking at a 90-degree angle until they invent physical therapy!"  
  
It took every ounce of her serenity and self-control typical to the elvish race to supress the urge to drop everything, scream like a human and flee the scene immediately. She did slip out a surprised yelp, though, when she turned around. The creature, as she expected, looked quite human with her tussled blonde hair, but unexpectedly, the elf-maid was alarmed by the smooth, flawlessness of he features and her unusual blue-green eyes. She wore an elvish nightgown sloppily, but other than that, looked, well, almost approachable.  
  
"Hey! Why dontcha take a picture!" the creature barked grumpily.  
  
The maid-servent glanced at the three small painting paintings hanging on the wall behind her, contemplating the meaning. That was when she noticed something. "I heard that you could not speak in the common tongue."  
  
Myu's eyes went wide and her lips squeezed to a pucker, communicating an "oops". "Ooh, uh, yea, uh... Mochiron kyoutsuugo wa zenzen dekinai ne. Tonikaku, kibun ga ochitsuite inai kara hottokeba ii yo..." ((Of course I can't speak any common tongue. Anyways, I'm not in a good mood, so you should leave me alone...))  
  
The elf-maid did not know what to make of this. "But you just spoke common tongue."  
  
"No I didn-- erm, sou ja nai yo."  
  
"But you just spoke it."  
  
Myu shook her head. "Sonna koto wa nai." ((I didn't at all.))  
  
"You did"  
  
"Sou ja nai." ((I didn't))  
  
The elf-maid furrowed her brow. "If you don't speak common tongue, then how do you understand me?"   
  
Myu contemplated. "Soiu wake de wa betsu ni..."  
  
"What does that mean?"  
  
"Sono imi wa ((The meaning is)) 'That's not necessarily the case'."  
  
"Aha!"  
  
Myu had to reflect back to figure out what she did wrong. "Oh."  
  
With dust rag still clutched tightly in hand, the elf-maid planted her hands on her hips and snarled in near outrage; "Why in Arda have you been trying you been trying to decieve us?" She was quite pleased when Myu cowered back.  
  
"I was, um, trying to avoid being questioned by Elrond," Myu reasoned it was the partial truth, "So I pretended I couldn't speak the language here... y'know... so he couldn't, like, talk to me... and stuff."  
  
The maid's mouth gaped, "You admit that you lied to the Lord of Rivendell?"  
  
Myu contemplated. "No."  
  
"Then what do you call what you did?"  
  
Myu contemplated... longer this time. "Tesu wo habuku koto..." ((Covering my @ss...)) she muttered.  
  
"What?"  
  
Myu just looked at her hands as whe wrung them.  
  
"What did you just say?"  
  
Myu resumed the guilty look until a moment later, quite suddenly, her eyes flashed with defiance. "Hey! You're just room service! Why should I be interrigated by you?"  
  
At that the maid-servant huffed, "So that may be, but my words are still trusted by the Lord, much more than yours, incidentally. Shall I inform him that you purposefully decived him. Do you even realize the consequence in that?"  
  
Myu waved her hand in dismissal, then plopped back onto the soft pillow waiting for her. "No, and I don't care. Go away. I'm tired."  
  
"Never in all my centuries have I been so mistreated! Whatever race you hail from, it must surely be one of the most tyrannical and barbaric in all of Arda! Have you nothing to that?"  
  
"Umm.... I'm not from Arda," Myu murmured, then sat up, forgetting something. She slipped off the bed and stretched over to the dressor that the maid had been dusting, opened the top drawer, removed the Koshito blade, tucked it under the mattress, then nestled back into the pillows and quilts and closed her eyes. "There much better."  
  
There was a long silence, then the slam of a door. Myu cracked an eye open to make sure the maid had gone, then ordered the computer to resume the dream-matrix.  
  
THE PRIOR FILE WAS EXITED WITHOUT SAVING. INFORMATION IS LOST.  
  
"Sore de, nanika wo detchiage nasai. Souzouteki de." ((Well then, make something up. Be creative.))  
  
I'M A COMPUTER. MY FUNCTION DOES NOT INCLUDE CREATIVITY.  
  
"Jaa, atashi ga jibun de souzouteki na koto wo omoitsukeba... Himosiki no shitagi nomi wo haite iru Elladan to Legolas ni shiyou to mo... hi ni yaketa shirozuna no kaigan de..." ((Well, if I have to think of something myself, I'll have Elladan and Legolas wearing nothing but a thong... on a sun-warmed white sand beach...]]  
  
DEAR GOD NO. ISN'T THERE A PARENTAL LOCK SOMEWHERE? (Searching C:\ProgramFiles...)  
  
"Chigau yo. Otosan wa kyonen bakari sore wo mukou ni saseta kara." ((Nope. Dad let me undo it just last year.))  
  
.............  
  
"Computer?"  
  
.............  
  
"Ahem!"  
  
............. (Dream-Matrix Initializing....)  
  
True to word, Myu found herself the next moment laying on a towel on a white-sand beach, with stereotypical seagull sounds and crashing wave, and thought she had seen this matrix before (she suspected the computer ripped it off of the Yamato Cruiselines virtual reality pop-up ad, but couldn't be sure... but it was plausible since the waves and seagull croons were set on 2 minute interval of repetition). Suddenly a pair of shadows were looming over her. She immediately went for the suntan lotion (there wasn't really sun tan lotion to begin with, it just sort of materialized). "How about massaging some of this stuff into my back, babes?" she asked the figures, but spun around to find, much to her surprise, not Elladan and Legolas, but a pair of orcs marching towards her (fully armored, not in thongs, luckily). She was just about to stand and confront them, but they continued to march-- not past her, but through her.  
  
"What's up with this sh--" Myu was about to exclaim, but noticed she was speaking in "Common tongue" and fell silent. "Computer! What are you doing! The Westron language pack is supposed to be disengaged. And I asked for Elladan and Legolas. You think this is funny? Since when are jokes part of your function?"   
  
No reply.  
  
She looked around and found herself in the middle of the forest. Many of the trees were fallen and several orcs were chopping at the wood and piling it into what would be a big bonfire. None of them seemed aware of her presence, even though she was standing clear out in the open. She would have considered that perhaps the computer was after all making an effort to be creative, but when she tried to bypass the operating system and manually hack into her cerebrel microprocessor, she found it wasn't there. The CPU chip had been, since her 21st birthday after she was installed into a type three human body, had always been there, just as her eyes and ears had always been there. To say that it had just disappeared was just...  
  
Panicked, Myu began to flutter and tried to move away from the orc camp. She found instantly that, no matter how much she peddled her feet, she couldn't seem to establish any forward momentum. In fact her feet were not even touching the ground. Odd. She found she could still rotate and look around. That was when she spotted something that was not an orc. It was a young man, about 17, huddled in a corner of the camp in the surfaced roots of some old tree. He had dark, wavy locks falling over tormented gray eyes and was bound at the wrists and ankles with dark stains of dired blood dappling his tattered shirt. She thought he looked familiar.  
  
"So you are the human boy the elves call Estel...?" crackled a deep voice. It was clearly orcish, but somehow sounded not so fierce, yet hollow and pacified like a slight breeze after a hurricane. The orc was hidden behind a birch tree from her vantage.  
  
The boy did not answer, but rather kept his vacant gray eyes focused on a patch of grass in front of him. Myu took a closer look at him. So that's who he was. He was that young man that she met at the lake that day... and again in the market square. Myu tried to wave at him, which was rather ineffective considering she now seemed to be an invisible, intangible object floating in mid air. "Estel? Is that you bud? Taquitos, you look like sh*t!" she said encouragingly, but he couldn't hear her. Another wandering orc passed through her, making her shudder and stick her tongue out.  
  
"Are you or are you not?" asked the orc again, before the voices owner stepped from behind the birch. It was just another orc as far as Myu could tell.  
  
"I am no one," Estel murmured flatly. Myu thought he sounded a lot like Robby the Robot from old episodes of "Lost in Space".  
  
"What can you tell me of the unusual woman with the short blonde and purple hair? My luliszub gajumat?" ((ugly flower))  
  
The orchish endearment struck a memory chord in Myu's mind; "Hey! You're that nasty pervert who beat up Elladan and started hitting on me!" Indeed it was Gothul.  
  
"I know not of whom you speak," uttered Estel.  
  
Gothul snarled. "You dare lie! She lives in the Elven village with you!"  
  
Estel refused once more to speak.  
  
"Answer me!" Gothul demanded, but the youth was stubborn. "You doubt my ability to make you talk," the orc rumbled with a malicious smile. His hand strayed to the dagger at his belt.  
  
Eyes suddenly wide, Myu's automatic response was to leap forward and intervene, but seemed tripped. It seemed funny that she could be floating in the air and trip on something. And now that she thought about it, it just seemed funny in general that she was just floating in the air and being intangible. Subsequent thoughts on this were running circles in Myu's head as she was falling forward, occupying the greater part of her consciousness. It took quite some time for her to notice that she was still falling, like, into pitch darkness or something. Or maybe she was just standing still in just a disoriented state. She reached out into the pitch black and felt a wall, verifying the latter. She noticed a small florescent light behind her and turned to face it.  
  
She was on a balcony in a cavernous room... a giant laboratory, which looked awfully familiar. In fact, she was sure it was the Konryu University of Physics astrophysics laboratory where she used to work and escaped through that time gateway. And sure enough, there was the said gateway, the sole source of the light, with three people gathered around it. Other than that, the laboratory was powered down and vacant, black except for the dim blue emergency lights.   
  
Myu realized that, without her Co-cerebral CPU, she had lost her Zoom function, and had to squint to see who those people were as she still couldn't move. One stood out foremost, a gold-and-red-winged alien creature with colorless skin and piecing bioluminescent eyes. And the one beside him, his messy black hair looked like was frozen in the process of exploding off his head and his dirty lab coat was markered with a Superman-style 'K'. And the third person was female, situated in the time gateway in a black jumpsuit and UV glasses, saying; "Dakara kitto itaku nai hazu datte no kai?" ((And you're sure sure this isn't supposed to hurt, right?)) She looked exactly like Myu except without the purple hair streaks.   
  
"Tou-chan, Kudo-sensei, Kaa-chan!" ((Dad, professor Kudo, and mom!)) Myu gasped, unable to believe that she was back in her world seeing her mother, father and... well never mind about him. "Ah! Mata houkokugo wo hanashteru n da. Suteki na." ((Ooh, I'm speaking Houkokugo again. Cool.))  
  
"Ittaku nai, ne?" ((It won't hurt, right?))  
  
[The process itself of stabilized metaphysical cosmic inversion is much along the lines gravitational hyperdistortion, so it should be an extremely violent process, in which case you won't feel anything at all as your entire nervous system will be ripped apart,] her father was telling her mother, [Remember, it is important that you do not forget the re-routing protocol. When you enter the cosmic inverse, space will become that which moves through time, and the protocol is necessary to guide you back to 3rd-millenium Earth, which will be over 41,000 light years away in combination of spatial momentum and Earth's net galactic velocity at 220 kilometers per second. Enter it into your Anchoring Devise after you find Myu.)  
  
Chiharu (Myu's mother) had been in the process of securing the buckle on her utility belt. "Nandakke?" ((What did you say?))  
  
Professor Kudo held up the hand-held "Anchoring Device" and explained very slowly: "Tsuurou ni haitte... Myu wo mitsukete.... tsuke-button wo oshite.... tokubetsu na bango wo ireyo...." ((Go in gateway... Find Myu... Push on-button... enter special number...))  
  
As Chiharu contemplated this, Myu looked back and forth between the three of them. "Atashi wo sagashite iru no? Demo, atashi ga koko ni iru..." ((You're looking for me? But I'm right here...)) Myu tried to reach out and touch her mother standing in the gateway, but couldn't. "Kono koto wa ittai nan ni tsuite kana...." ((I wonder what the heck this is all about...))  
  
"De wa, mazu Myuu wo mitsukete, button wo osu koto de aru ne. Saigo wa bango." ((So, I find Myu then push the button. The number comes last.)) Chiharu recapped.  
  
Kudo and Jin (Myu's father) nodded in unison. [Do you recall the number?] asked the latter.  
  
"Mmm... 00002897345981043582983."  
  
[Good, you're all set then,] Jin reached for the switch.  
  
"Ittekimasu." ((I'll be back soon)) she smiled, waving as the time gateway began to pour out a blinding light.  
  
"Itterasshai," ((see you then.)) responded Jin and Kudo in unison, the alien actually deeming the occation special enough to use his voice.  
  
In a flash, Myu's consciousness went black.  
  
"Maa, sore nante shitte shimatte makoto ni yoroshikatta desu ne," [Well, I'm sincerely glad THAT's over with.] Kudo muttered to his boss, rubbing his hands together.  
  
Jin furrowed his brow. [Yes, but I cannot help but having this strange feeling.]  
  
"Hee? Nanno kimochi?" ((Eh? What feeling?))  
  
Jin gestured to the balcony nearest the timegateway. [It's strange, but I feel almost as though Myu had been standing there a moment ago, watching us while we were talking to Chiharu. But after we dispatched Chiharu, Myu's presence simply disappeared...]  
  
Kudo blinked a few times and waited respectfully as his superior wavered in contemplation, but in the end Kaneko Jin proved too science-minded to believe in something like that. He shrugged it off. [Never mind. My ESP is just muddled. It gets like this during the cold season.] But that still did not keep Jin from casting a surreptitious glance over his shoulder at the balcony before following Kudo out of the astrophysics lab.  
  
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU  
  
A/N: OMG, you guys. I had no idea so many people were actually reading this. Again, sorry it took so long ......... and hint: that funky thing that happened to Myu, that's foreshadowing, see.  
  
Naomi Maxwell: Sorry!  
  
Tweekymonkey: Sorry!  
  
Kaio: Sorry!  
  
born to be hanged: Sorry!  
  
disturbed mikonei: Sorry!  
  
kaio: Sorry!  
  
born to be hanged: Sorry!  
  
kaio: Sorry!  
  
kaio: Sorry!  
  
kaio: Sorry!  
  
kaio: Sorry!  
  
Tictac: Thanks much.  
  
yoshi: thanks alot. It's good you took your time, because this update was so delayed *grumbles*  
  
IMPROVED Uber Rei Model 06: That's alright, your not supposed to know all that much about some guy's made up fantasy land unless you want to end up a geek like me.  
  
ONE: Thanks. A very very unconventional relationship indeed.  
  
Merit Somnia: Myu pregnant... my idea is that by 3076, humans will be able to get accidental pregnancies undercontrol and do away with abortion-- fetus rights activists and all.... Legolas being tortured... Legolas being the son of a king, I'd say no, that would be bad for Mirkwood/Rivendell diplomatic relations. The most they'd do is tell his daddy-- that's how he gets in trouble. The orc........ Gothul is my twisted orc who deeply fancies Myu. He's basically there to create a plot obstical.  
  
Morima: Sorry it was late. That's a very nice compliment, my story being original and interesting. I don't think a lot of people have a firm grasp on what a MS is to begin with. I think Legolas himself-- perfect in every way, never does anything wrong, never gets a scratch or a tangle in his blonde locks-- is more of an MS than most of these branded "sues" have ever been  
  
Aryll: Thanks so much. I'm glad you thought it was funny. I sometimes laugh when i think of something to put in this story, but it never seems to work out the way i like it, and i'm always paranoid that each chapter is sounding even lamer than the rest. It's really nice to hear someone likes it so much =)  
  
Tweeky Monkey: A submissive, pervered legolas... well, Tolkien didn't  
  
IMPROVED Uber Rei Model 06: Nah, this is nowhere near the fellowship. It takes place in 3019. This is 2948.  
  
Ali: Thanks alot. That's what I like to hear... "different"  
  
yoshi: LOL... poor guy. that must hurt.  
  
Xephon (too cowardly to log in): If you're not a fangirl yourself, then what are you doing surfing around the rated-R section of a fanfiction site? You shouldn't tell yourself to die, it's not nice...  
  
born to be hanged: Thanks alot and no,no,no,no... no child. By 3075, I could confidently predict people would have managed to do away with accidental pregnancies to prevent abortions-- it does away with the fetus rights activists. And PLEASE don't take the stuff I made up too seriously. It's just an idea. I'm just a Asian Studies major with an interest in science. And Elladan is coming back... well, real soon actually.  
  
CSI: Poor Legolas. I love tormenting my characters, have you noticed? P.S. I didn't beta this one chapter because it's been such a long time and I wanted it up ASAP. There's two more parts that were *supposed* to go to this chapter 7, but that I'll send that for betaing and post them collectively as chapter 8! I hope you didn't think i abandoned the story or anything.  
  
kaio: The reason Myu's mom made a clone was because she's, as you'll see later, pretty egotistical and thinks no child would be better than a copy of herself. Other than that, Myu's dad is an alien, whose planet went through an entirely different evolutionary process. He doesn't have DNA. Ashura have a brain lobe that acts like DNA in regulating physical growth, and the way Ashura grow depends on the thoughts and moods they esperince as they mature into adults. It would be impossible to mix the two features of Humans and Ashura.  
  
Azura1: It's a surprise who Myu ends up with (maybe I'll have two alternate endings, who knows)  
  
Joy4eva: *cries* I didn't update soon.. I've failed everyone!  
  
Naomi Maxwell: I really hated being tortured by sporks... but it wasn't my fault, dammit! (excpet for my forgetfulness last week... oh well) I hope you're still up to betaing. I just posted this without because it had been such a long time. 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
  
A/N: Alright. This is going to be the last long chapter. Since everyone wants it posted more quickly, I'm going to compromise and write less, post more from now on. Chapter nine will be up as soon as I get it back from the beta  
  
Thanks to IMPROVED Uber Rei Model 06 for betaing the second half. And for the first half, thanks to Kawabata-san who looked over it for me.  
  
*******  
  
"Kachou-san wa, Chiharu-san wo kako made okutte, hontou wa kaeshikata mo nai to iu imi ni nasaimasu ka?" ((Boss. Are you implying that you sent Chiharu to the past and really have no way to bring her back?))  
  
Having just sent Chiharu back in time to get Myu, Professor Kudo and Astrophysics department chief, Kaneko Jin were seated in the department lounge having a cup of tea, when Jin had just shrugged non-chalantly and said "I don't either" to Kudo's statement he didn't understand how Jin was planning to bring them back to the present.  
  
[Yet.] Jin corrected, [I don't know how to do it YET. That's what we're working on.]  
  
"Demo desu ne! Moshi mada kaeshikata wo sagashi kakaranakatta ra, kakaru jikan ga zenzen wakarimasen ne. Sorya hyakunen mo kakaru koto mo aru desho ka?" ((But, y'know! If you haven't even started to look for a way to bring them back yet, then you don't know how long it could take! It could be a hundred years from now!))  
  
Jin blew on his tea, making a rippling noise. [It very well may, but that will not make the slightest bit of difference because we are on two completely different time planes. We may come up with the answer a thousand years from now, but we may still retrieve them at the exact same moment we dropped Chiharu off. You should know this.]  
  
"Wakarimasu keredomo.... Naze kaeshikata wo hakken suru mae ni Chiharu-san wo ima okuru n desho?" ((I understand, but... Why send Chiharu now before we've discovered a way to bring her back?))  
  
[Because the longer my ex-wife is gone, the better.]  
  
You could almost see a sweat-drop trail down Kudo's temple before he put his head down on the table and moaned; "Sen-nen da-tte..." ((A thousand years he says....))  
  
[There, there, human.] Jin consoled, patting Kudo's scrawny shoulder with a taloned hand. [Lighten up. I believe I have noticed something when we sent Chiharu back in time that may expedite our work considerably.]  
  
"Nan desho ka?" ((What is it, sir?)) Kudo mumbled without lifting his head.  
  
[I felt Myu's presence.]   
  
Kudo peeked up from under his unruly mop of hair. "Mm? Dou iu imi desho?" ((Mm? What do you mean, sir?))  
  
[I felt that Myu was there watching us.]  
  
"Bakemono desho?!" ((A ghost?!))  
  
[Don't be ridiculous. Just tell me; did you not also feel that something extra was there? Up on the balcony.]  
  
"Ano sa, ningen mo ga soiu dekimasu kana. Sou ieba, asoko ni hen na mono nanka atta ki ga shimashita sa. Shikashi Jikan Tsuro no sei shika ja nakatta to omoimashita ne." ((Um, I don't think humans can do something like that, but come to think of it, it felt like there was something spooky there. But I thought it was just because of the Time Gateway))  
  
[Every living creature has a sense of time and space. It gives you a sense of existence,] Jin explained, [You indeed felt something there, as I did, although you could not see it. However, as a telepath, I could sense the presence more clearly, and to me, it was definitely identifiable as my daughter. Now, take a moment to consider this; Myu's consciousness appeared when we opened Chiharu's timewarp. Why?]  
  
"Ano... ochikomimashita kara ka na." ((Ummm... because she fell in maybe?))  
  
[Yes, but why? Why did Myu fall into Chiharu's time warp out of all other living things that exist in the world?]  
  
Kudo's eyes suddenly got very wide. "Naruhodo. Sarimasen deshita kara ne. Myu wa mada koko ni itte kaesu koto ga kantan desho!" ((Of course! She didn't leave. Myu's still here, and it'll be easy to bring her back!))  
  
Jin blinked. [Um....... no. She's definitely not here, not NOW anyways. The key is that she WAS here, and that she WAS teleported through your machine, the exact same way we teleported Chiharu, just at a different time.]  
  
Kudo scratched his head sheepishly then finished off his tea, still not understanding what Jin was getting at.   
  
Jin took a sugar cube from the dispenser. [Think. In the context of time travel, time reverses it's function as an independent variable. Time becomes space and space becomes time. The reason that Myu was sucked into Chiharu's time warp was because her own timewarp was *close* to it on the time plane, like one whirlpool merging with another.]  
  
"Demo sa, hoka no jikan-bizumi ni eikyou suru to iu to, imada jibun no jikan-bizumi ni iru wake ni narimasu ka?" ((But wouldn't she have still had to be in timewarp to be effected by another timewarp?))  
  
[No. Don't you see? She is still IN timewarp. She will be in the timewarp so long as she is not in her original timeframe-- our timeframe, that is.]  
  
Kudo sat absolutely still, feeling faint traces of comprehension beginning to feather at his brain."Kachou wa..." ((Boss...?))  
  
[Don't ask me. It's your project, and moreoever, your falt for not following university policy and setting up password-protection on the console. Otherwise my daughter would not have been able to get herself into this mess to begin with.] Jin downed his tea in a single gulp, and seeing the lost look on Kudo's face, he gave a hint, [You remember the physical law that matter cannot be created or destroyed?]  
  
Kudo nodded.  
  
[Well, that's still a law. When you try to put someone back in time, you try to add matter to a world he's not supposed to exist in, and take him out of the one where he's supposed to exist. That's not possible, and I told you that the moment you started this project.]  
  
"Sou iu to, seika wa..." ((Then saying that, the result would be...))  
  
[A sub-reality. Myu is not back in time. She is not part of history. She is on an offshoot. Nothing she has done has occured in our past, but is, right now, occurring in its own frame of time and space. It's like the "Never Ending Story"- did you see that?- the pages are written as you live the tale.]  
  
Kudo was squinting his narrow eyes at Jin for a long moment, then suddenly, so suddenly h knocked the chair over, jumped up like a bucket of fire ants had just been dumped down the back of his trowsers and tore off towards the lab, calling after them. "Wakatta! Kaeshikata ga wakatta!" ((I got it! I know how to get them back.))  
  
Jin stared after him, smiling faintly.   
  
_____________________  
  
The time was a little before 6 AM and in mid-summer, which meant that the sun was just now coming up. While the rest of the war party slept, the sleepy-eyed elf posted as look-out watched the eastern sky gradually grow ruddy with daylight. The twitters and cuckoos of birds were beginning to echo through the cool air, which was surely a signal that nothing dangerous lurked nearby, and besides, orcs rarely stayed up this late-- or early, rather. The lookout's eyes had already begun to glaze over, as he thought of catching up a little on lost sleep before the rest of the party stirred and begun morning preparations. He was contemplating the possibility of napping while standing in a tree holding a bow and arrow, when a hand came down on his shoulder. The elf jumped.  
  
"If you did not notice me coming up here, Laesonif, then surely you do not feel the danger nearby.... Have you been dozing?"   
  
Laesonif cringed. He knew who it was before he even turned to look at him. "My apologies, Lord Elladan. It was quite involunatry."  
  
Elladan scrutinized the young warrior a moment before saying; "If you cannot govern yourself enough to keep from falling asleep, then perhaps you would be better suited to a more domestic occupation."  
  
After all the martial training Laesonif underwent, and all the joy he experienced when at last he was accepted into the warrior ranks, doing anything else but fighting was out of the question. "I will try harder, I promise!" Laesonif scrambled to get off the subject. "You said you sensed danger nearby? I sense it as well. Shall I go scout?"  
  
Elladan's gaze strayed to the trees, and he nodded. Laesonif dropped lightly from his perch and took off in the direction Elladan was looking. "No," Elladan stopped him, then motioned more to the left. "That way."   
  
The Laesonif nodded, then dissolved quickly into the foliage. Elladan was left wondering what he would find out there. "Do you feel it too?" he asked.  
  
Elrohir froze, utterly startled that Elladan had sensed him sneaking up the tree trunk below. With a grunt of dismay, Elrohir had no choice but to drop back down, his playful attempts thwarted. He recalled the time he had unsuccessfully snuck up and tried to dump a bucket of water on his brother's head not too long ago and asked. "How do you do that?"   
  
Elladan ignored the question, and dropped to the forest floor beside his brother. "Something is amiss," he said importantly, closing his eyes to better concentrate on other senses. "There is a red sky. Blood has been spilt this night. I sense the uneasiness of the forest reflects this omen." He looked very pensive as he said this.   
  
"Amanthon and I were shooting squirrels last night," Elrohir suggested.  
  
Suppressing a weary sigh, Elladan told his mentally-younger twin; "This is important. If you have nothing relavent to say, then say nothing."   
  
"You are the one who started the conversation."  
  
  
  
"Aye, and I regret that I did," Elladan growled through his teeth.  
  
"Then may I change the subject if it's relavent?"  
  
Elladan nodded hesitantly.  
  
"What did you say to Myu the other night that--"  
  
"I didn't say anything to her!" Elladan snapped with sudden anger.   
  
Elrohir looked taken aback, "Very well."  
  
"There are several morning chores that need to be carried out before we may depart and continue our search for that orc band," said Elladan tartly as he started back toward the camp, "See if you can make yourself useful."   
  
But Elrohir refused to stop following him. "While we're on the topic of Myu--"   
  
"We're not on the topic of Myu." Elladan interrupted tetchily.   
  
"--I have a question."   
  
"No."   
  
Elrohir followed his brother around a tree, he looked as though he were about to sit down on his blankets, but the presence of his twin evidently annoyed him enough to give him second thought. He walked back around the tree to see what else he could do, and did so at an unusually brisk pace. "The night before we left Imladris," Elrohir preambled, hurrying to catch up, "I saw Myu running through the courtyard toward the front gate of the house."   
  
Elladan didn't answer as he stooped to shake one of his warriors awake who had overslept.   
  
"She was crying," he added.   
  
That gave Elladan a pause, but he was quick to shake off whatever nagging he felt at his conscience, "I am sorry to hear that, but knowing her, she is likely recovered of it by now... Brandweg! Awaken! There is much to do!"   
  
The elf in question groaned, murmured something, then rolled over and wandered back down the path of elven dreams. Elladan stood in defeat. "I shall be sure to report him when we return home," he promised to himself.   
  
"She was also carrying a bottle of wine," Elrohir rambled on, "I think it was the Dorwinion!"   
  
"Enough already!" Elladan stopped and spun to face his brother, who had started following him again, "Why are you prying thusly about this matter?"   
  
Elrohir shrugged. "I was just concerned for her."   
  
Elladan blinked, then barked a laugh. "Imagine that! She has proven herself utterly invincible and you are concerned for her! What worse could happen to her than feeling a little glum every so often? Do you think her people even know what it is like to feel pain? To feel..." Something came across Elladan's mind that cut him off. He looked up then and noticed several curious eyes turned his way.  
  
"'To feel loss'?" Elrohir finished for him, "Is that what you wanted to say?"  
  
Elladan smiled wryly. Who better to read his thoughts than his twin?   
  
Elrohir read that as a yes. It was his brother at his same old grievences about Naneth's ((mother)) untimely death again. "She is in Valinor, Elladan," Elrohir recited his usual condolences wearily, "She is free from suffering there, and we will see her again when we all leave Arda eventually. You keep bringing this up over and over again, muindor nin. And with the way we keep riding out and wreaking vengence on orcs, one would guess that it happened only yesterday, not more than a century ago. It is time to let go."  
  
Elladan's smile faded. Perhaps his brother did not understand as well as he thought. "Nay, Elrohir. It is not her suffering that ails me now. It is adar's." Turning his back, he walked slowly back to his blanket, bunched it up, and used it as a cushion as he sat against the tree trunk, where he could speak more privately. Elrohir followed in suit and knelt beside him, waiting patienty. Finally, Elladan opened up. "Haven't you felt it? That fear of loss?"  
  
Elrohir's expression was blank and still on standby for further explanation.  
  
"Ever since we were elflings," Elladan began to explain, "We were told that we would live forever, and that our adar and our naneth and everyone we knew would all live forever. And then suddenly, one day, that promise was broken. And we realize that even elves live and die just like the trees and beasts of the forest. Could you not also assume that the sun, promised to us for eternity as well, will one day fail to rise and leave the earth in darkness? Thinking of that, you realize that nothing in your life can promise you forever. Everything you gain is meant to be lost, and everythihng that brings you joy will also bring you sorrow..." Elladan smiled ruefully, and added for a good measure; "Unless of course you out live it."   
  
Elrohir wasn't very adept in functioning in such a serious conversation. So he just proffered up a neutral observation; "That's pretty depressing."  
  
"Aye, it is." Elladan responded with a sigh. "And I have worried ever since, that if I bind myself to an elleth ((female elf)), I may be left behind as our adar has been. His suffering is no secret to any one..."  
  
Elrohir's eyes widened, suddenly getting his brother's gist. "And that, you are saying, since Myu cannot be killed, you've... you've..."  
  
"Aye. I have been courting her."  
  
Elrohir's jaw dropped. "COURTING-- mmph?!!"  
  
Elladan slapped a hand over his twin's mouth. "Keep your voice down! I am indeed courting her, for it is my decision. I do not wish to put my love and my faith into someone that may one day be lost to me. It is within my ability to love her, and that I will do. She seems to have nowhere else to go, and I know I can make her happy here."  
  
Elrohir was speechless for a moment, then asked, "But will she make *you* happy?"  
  
Elladan scowled at his brother. "If you love someone, they will make you happy regardless."  
  
Taking a moment to recover from the shock and process what was just said, Elrohir suddenly chuckled to himself. "Elbereth. I can't wait until adar hears about this one! He's gonna have wargs."  
  
"Elrohir! You are not to tell--" Elladan was protesting, but stopped short. At some point in time, heavy footfalls had mingled into the usual sounds of the forest. It was still too distant for human ears, but the twin elves had just now noticed it. The footsteps were deliberate, heavy and irregular, and in no way did they belong to anything planning an ambush. Even so, two of Elladan's warriors had already fitted their bows and got into position to assult the intruder if necessary.   
  
Within moments, the supposed intruder was visible somewhat through the branches of a fir tree. Elladan immediately recognized Laesonif. But the other figure that he supported on his shoulder, the one that was making noise as he walked, wasn't in clear view. The newcomer, evidentally a Man, was clothed in black and caked with filth from head to toe. As he came closer, Elladan realized that much of it was dried blood. The Man looked like he was about to collapse.  
  
"Hir nin," Laesonif nodded to Elladan and Elrohir as he finally stepped within the bounds of their camp, holding the Man's arm draped over his shoulder. "I found the one who caused the trees to be uneasy. He is hurt badly."  
  
The Man was too weak to lift his head, and dark hair draped over his face, but much to Elladan's surprise, the man not only responded to Laesonif speaking in elvish, but also spoke the same language more or less fluently himself. "It is not for me that the trees are uneasy."   
  
And it was then that Elladan knew who it was. "Gresham," both he and his brother uttered as one. His thoughts turned instantly to Estel, who was nowhere to be seen, and glancing at Elrohir, he could tell he was thinking along the same lines.  
  
It was as though Gresham had read his thoughts. "Estel..." he began weakly, struggling to draw breath. There was a sickening gurgle as he inhaled, hinting that one of his lungs had been punctured by a broken rib. "Orcs have him... alive. They let me go to deliver a message..." The Man extended his free hand to reveal a sullied sheet of parchment clenched in it.   
  
Whether it was that simple action alone that had expended the last of his energy, or that he was content to let go now that his mission was complete, Gresham at that moment collapsed and said no more.  
  
PART 2: LEGOLAS' FATE  
  
Somewhere hiding in the labyrinth of cellars below the last Homely Home....  
  
It felt good. In fact, it had felt really good. He had never been dealt with in that manner and thoughts of that night refused to leave his mind. Little things like the panting in his ear or the scent still echoed in his mind and made him crave that encounter again. He was far past the sexually active stages of his life, but thinking about it freely made him feel like he was an elfling barely in his hundreds. And besides, there was not much else to do in here besides think tasteless thoughts and get oneself thoroughly hammered on aged liquor.  
  
Raising the glass of warmed wine to his lips as he leaned back comfortably on pillows of royal-blue velvet, Legolas continued staring into the hearth with a reflection of the crackling flames in his thought-glazed eyes. His gaze began to stray over the soft bear rug and the crystal decanter and the tapestry, then finally settled on the window. He was about to drowsily remark how much of an eyesore those iron bars were when the clack of a lock indicated a sudden visitor.  
  
The door would have flown of its hinges if they were made of anything but iron as the visitor, an dark-haired elf wearing robes of scholarly rank, entered stridently in quite uncalled-for haste. The racket was enough to give Legolas a start, during which some of the wine splattered from his glass and on to the collar of his velvet robe. With narrowed eyes, the dark-haired elf took in his surroundings in a glance and spotted the blonde elf on the sofa with a slight red flush to his face betraying his excessive intake of alcohol. "Why did you not tell us that she could speak the common tongue?" he demanded forthwith.  
  
Legolas used a finger to rub at the wine stain now on his collar to little effect and gave up easily, giving the finger a surreptitious lick to remove some of the stickiness. He checked the finger for any discoloration then, seeming to notice the dark-haired for the first time, smiled irrelavantly and inclined his head to him. ".... Lord Erestor."  
  
Unperturbed, Erestor asked the question again; "Why did you not tell us that this Kaneko Myu could speak the common tongue?  
  
Taking care to set the wine down in his impaired state, he popped opened the decanter to top off his glass, purposefully taking his time. "Why should I tell you anything? As an inoscent Elf being convicted of a crime, it appears that you believe nothing I say to-- hup-- begin with."   
  
"Nonsense. You have not been convicted."  
  
"Then I suppose Elrond's people must enjoy placing Mirkwood ambassadors of noble blood to suffer solitary confinement for a number of days as a jest," he said, leaning back and closing his eyes as if to fall asleep. He suppressed a hiccup.  
  
Erestor furrowed his brow and gestured meaningfully toward the luxurious wine and velvet Legolas was indulging himself in. "Valar! As if you are indeed suffering--"  
  
"I am growing pale from lack of sunlight!" he interrupted indignantly.  
  
"--And that 'number of days' has been barely even two," Erestor pressed on, "A (a) sentence that could have been utterly avoided had you cooperated and provided us with proper information. Had we known she had been hiding her ability to speak Westron, we could have interrogated her just after the accusation and you would have been spared any confinement whatsoever."  
  
At that accusation, Legolas sat up, lost balance, fell back into the pillows, then propped himself on elbows, growling, "Do pardon me, but it did not occur to me that Elrond's people would have been so uninformed as to know not even whether a guest living within the Lord's house spoke a language they could understand."  
  
"She had been deceiving us!"  
  
"Then as a deceiver, she should be in this cell in my stead!"  
  
"We cannot keep her in a cell."  
  
"Oh? And by what excuse?"  
  
Erestor was wondering why he was even having this conversation to begin with. Surely if he left now without a word Legolas had forget he had ever came here by the time the hangover wore off. "You know her strength. She can crush iron locks with her bare hands, and there is not an elf in Rivendell who can subdue her. Not even an army of armed orcs can subdue her."  
  
"Then why not banish her?"  
  
"How can we force her to leave a place if we cannot make her stay in one?"  
  
"Quite..." Legolas had no idea why he said that when he thought about it, which would be much later on. He was too fuzzy brained to think of much of anything right now. He suppressed another hiccup.  
  
Erestor was compelled to forge on, for he too was for having Kaneko Myu banished from Rivendell. "Even if I could devise a plan to trick the shallow-minded creature into leaving, it is still, by order of Lord Elrond and Lord Glorfindel, not permitted until we have ample time to document information about her kind..." Legolas had gone back to downing wine and he was more or less talking to himself at that point. "Lord Elrond is convinced that we must be prepared to defend ourselves should more of her kind find her way here, and, in extreme circumstance, mount an attack. Lord Glorfindel expressed in his dispatch-- he is away in Lorien at the moment-- that he would like to explore the possibilities of recruiting her to aid in Rivendell's defense against orc and goblin war parties."  
  
Legolas seemed to be contemplating what Erestor said for a moment, but really wasn't. "...May I leave now?"  
  
The answer to this began with a smirk, which was not a good prospect. "If you indeed, as you say, did not attack her then the opposite must be true, in which case you will need to be kept here for your safety, hir nin ((milord)). We cannot allow Elven royalty to be molested by incredibly muscular little girls, now can we."  
  
Legolas blushed furiously. Had he had a few more glasses of liquor, he would have started a fist fight, shouting 'You son of a warg!' by this point. "You know very well this will not go over well in terms of-- hic-- diplomatic relations between our two peoples."  
  
"And if we send your father word, we would have to mention this incident." If Legolas had anything near heat vision, Erestor would have had a hole in his head the size of a football. Taking the wicked glare as his cue to leave, Erestor bowed courteously and turned to open the cell door. "We will conduct the hearing immediately. You will have your freedom soon, hir nin ((milord)). Until then, I bid you a good--"  
  
"I shall accompany you," Legolas interrupted, standing to slip on a pair of trousers under his robe. " I wish to speak with her."  
  
But Erestor would have none of that. "The laws of our realm state--"  
  
"The laws of mine state that a victim is entitled to witness a perpetrator's hearing. In this particular case, one party is a member of the Woodland realm, and the other is not one of your people. Therefore, Rivendell law should not apply."  
  
Erestor had never thought of it that way before, but before he could debate the issue further, the wood Elf was already out the door. "Since when have you become so knowledgeable in justice and politics?" he asked as he hurried after the Elf prince.  
  
To Legolas, it sounded like a contemptuous inquiry, so he decided not to answer. "Whither is the interrogation chamber?" he asked when he got to the main cellar hall.  
  
"Help! Help!"  
  
The shrill female voice pierced the silent corridors like nails across a black board. Erestor and Legolas flinched back, the latter having a few issues with keeping his balance. "That is not the maid," Erestor pointed out, "Could it be that--"  
  
"Estel's in trouble, we've got to help him!" The shout proceeded a pair of maids who went scurrying for their lives across an adjoining hall, away from the source of the voice. A moment later came a bleach-blonde figure scrambling around the corner. She paused, assessed each hall, and immediately spotted Legolas. "Lego-kun!" she started toward them. It was indeed Myu, wearing that strange blue form-fitting costume she had arrived here in, the one with the strange symbols on the back.  
  
"Calm down! I implore you," Erestor, the voice of reason, said as he stepped between Myu and Legolas. Much to his surprise, she picked them both up, hefted them over her shoulders and started carrying them down the hallway.  
  
"I missed you," murmured the inebriated elf prince, patting the blonde and purple head.  
  
"Put us down this instant!" cried Elrond's Councilor, wriggling furiously.  
  
"We need to rescue Estel."  
  
"Estel is with Gresham on an educational tour. What gives you any incentive that they are in danger?" Erestor wheezed, seeing as how her bony shoulder was cutting into his diaphragm, "And by the Valar, if you set me down on my own two feet, I shall walk with you. There is no need for this indecency!"  
  
Held in the same position on the other shoulder was making Legolas' stomach a little upset. The fact he was drunk wasn't aiding matters either....  
  
"Here." There was no real way to let Erestor down easily and the elf ended up on the floor. He stood, brushed himself off indignantly, then looked to make sure no one had witnessed the event.  
  
"You do realize how absurd this sounds," he told Myu slowly, still not used to being able to communicate with her by conventional means, if this could be considered 'conventional', "Is there anything you do that makes sense or are your actions supposed to be completely random?" he asked rhetorically.  
  
"Estel's really in trouble. I saw it."  
  
The councilor folded his arms tightly across his chest, resembling a fatherly figure and said, "How did you see it? Did you abscond into the forest again, despite being told not to?"  
  
Myu's eyes went wide, as if she were about to say something important and larger than life. Erestor braced himself. "No! I was in a dream matrix when I suddenly had a real dream and I was like floating in mid air and I don't know why I was floating in mid air and I was wondering why I was floating in mid air because there did not appear to be any physical forces acting on me and I was in like a forest and stuff and I saw Estel and he was tied up in ropes and stuff and seemed really depressed that he was tied up in ropes and stuff when an orc which I think was that orc who was hitting on me after I downloaded the Westron language pack after I ran away from Rivendell started being mean to Estel and he asked Estel about me but Estel didn't answer so he was about to torture him then I tripped and I don't know how I tripped since I was floating in mid air but I tripped and I saw mom and dad in the Konryu Butsudai laboratory but that's irrelevant so I woke up from the dream back into the dream matrix and my co-cerebral CPU chip told me that nothing happened but it really did happened because it seemed very real and it's never happened before so I really think Estel's in trouble."  
  
Still draped over her shoulder, Legolas chuffed softly, enjoying the view, but coping with mounting stomach trouble. He clamped his mouth tightly shut as a precaution.  
  
Meanwhile, Erestor's mouth was gaping. "Dear Valar. That was all one sentence."  
  
"We've got to look for him. Are you going to come with me or do Legolas and I have to do it ourselves?" she asked, patting precariously close to the Mirkwood Elf's posterior. That was all it took to undo the last of Legolas' restraints and he convulsed. Myu stood frozen in utter shock as she felt something warm flowing down her backside. Then the face melted instantly to denial, then into anger, then into an exasperated acceptance. Then came the anger again. "Kono kusottare!" ((You little sh*t!)) she hollered at him as she threw him to the ground like a sack of potatoes.  
  
"Le bain sui ninniach," ((You are beautiful like the rainbow)) Legolas drunkenly crooned at the irate face glaring down at him. He had some of the stuff in his hair.  
  
Erestor had been watching the scene unfold to a degree of shock at first, but seeing the long greenish yellow trail streaked down Myu's back, his perpetually ceremonious behavior snapped somewhere inside, and he started laughing. At first it was a snicker, then a chuckle, and the next thing he knew he had collapsed to his knees bawling and started rolling on the floor gasping for breath. This started Legolas to giggling as well. Myu could only glare between the two.  
  
One of Elrond's local scouts could not have picked a worse time to come scurrying around the bend with an urgent message. "Milord Erest--" the young Elf cried, then abruptly stopped.  
  
A very embarrassed Erestor managed get to his feet, but the laughter refused to leave. "Yes Tinion-- heh, hee-- what hap-- what hap--"  
  
"What happened, hir nin?" the scout asked with uncertainty, eyeing the red-faced Mirkwood prince rolling on the floor and the suspicious yellow-green stuff on Myu's back. "An urgent matter. Estel's mentor, Gresham has returned to Rivendell. He is dead, hir nin. And Estel has been captured by orcs."  
  
Even Legolas stopped laughing on that instant. It was as abrupt as cold water poured over a flame. Erestor focused his gaze of disbelief first on the scout then on Myu. And there it lingered when he asked, "And who have you passed this information to before me."  
  
"No one, hir nin. It was given to me by the rider himself, whom I met on the main road as he was bringing Gresham back to Imladris. The Man had died on the way here and the rider has not yet entered the city to deliver the news. He said only that Estel had been captured and that Elladan and Elrohir's party are searching for him. You are the first within the city to hear this, hir nin."   
  
Erestor was stunned. Perhaps Myu was telling the truth. Since he knew nothing about her kind, it was possible she could be a prophet of some sort. "Do you know where Estel is, Myu?"  
  
Myu blinked. "No." The councilor looked perturbed, so she added quickly, "But I know that he's being held hostage. The orcs are after me. I know this. You need me to go with you. You get Estel back, then I'll beat them all up for you and come back to Rivendell. How's that sound?"  
  
Erestor debated. He knew he really should think this through more, but time played a heavy factor. He did not know he could trust Myu, but then why would she have raving about going to help Estel if she intended to hurt him. Even so, the party he might find some use for her as a diversion if anything. "Tinion," he directed the scout in Elvish, ((Form a party of our fastest riders. Take this creature with you.))  
  
"Aye, hir nin," the scout bowed, then turned to Myu. "Come along. We have not time to waste."  
  
"Oh, great, great, great, great," she squeaked, hopping up and down, tugging on the sleeve of the scout who was quite taken aback. "But Legolas and I have to wash up first. C'mon Legolas!" She chirped as she began dragging the incapacitated elf by the foot, eliciting a groan.  
  
Erestor debated a moment on whether to stop her, but decided not to. A little adventure would do the snooty Mirkwood prince some good, he reckoned, then left the three to their own devices.  
  
************  
  
TicTac -- Thanx alot. It was a hassel, but it was good I got the chance to polish it up.  
  
LevelTwentySeven Sorry, I got cut off the internet, and besides, I'm writing long chapters, which take a long time to write. I'm thinking of going for shorter ones like I used to so I can write them faster.   
  
yoshi -- Thanks. I'm glad you like it  
  
kaio I'm hoping to have all the characters meet each other eventually-- even Myu's dad   
  
IMPROVED Uber Rei Model - - Sorry. I thought it was going to take longer, and I don't really have time to check the email during the weekdays... But thanks for betaing. I know you have midterms, so I know how busy it is. This semester I only have two midterms coming up, but my main problem is that I have two advanced Japanese translation classes and translations take HUGE chunk out of my time.  
  
Joy4eva - After this, I'm gonna make shorter chapters, so they should be in sooner.  
  
Ariaste - LOL. I know it's confusing, but think of it this way - it's foreshadowing. Something even wierder is goign to happen.   
  
Ashes2 - Foreshadowing! It's foreshadowing! And don't worry about not being of sound mind. I don't think anyone has one-- some are just further away from it than others.  
  
YueMichiruNaragisawaMiko - Thanks a lot. I'm trying to keep it funny, but it's hard sometimes... no, really it's hard all of the time =)   
  
Morima - Hmm. I hope I didn't make Myu sound too beautiful-- maybe cute-- and definitely not omnipotent because she's very confused about her whole experience up till now. But maybe other things are too MS-ish, like being invincible and stuff. Good point.  
  
Naomi Maxwell -- Well, erms sorry about that. I hope you don't mind betaing the next chapter. The first part of this chapter was mostly talking, so I betaed it myself. I already sent you the chapter, so if you look for that.  
  
born to be hanged -- Thank alot. And, yeah, that's right Kate Bosworth. I was looking her up again for another pic, and I saw something saying she was engaged to Orlando Bloom-- isn't that the guy who plays Legolas? If that's true, then that's pretty creepy, because I just matched Myu to Kate out of the blue!   
  
Aryll --- Thanks so much. I appreciate it, tho'I wonder about my ability of making plots, really, because I must have changed this one at least fifty times, and I'm still not completely sure it's not going to end up a mess, but oh well, at least I persist. 


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